John 'PC49' Worsley - maritime art for sale

I'm used to thinking of John Worsley as the artist on the PC49 strip in the original Eagle comic, of course as a professional illustrator he worked in a number of different fields - he worked as a courtroom artist and illustrated Wind in the Willows books - so that's not a bad range.

What we see less often is, as his Wikipedia entry (here) highlights, the work that led him to be president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. Luckily there's a stunning painting currently on sale on ebay here (auction ends Monday lunchtime) that shows this side of his work off perfectly...

Bidding starts at £2,000 for this painting of the Royal Yacht Britannia (and 2 initial water colour trials).

It's a world away from the grime and crime of PC49's London but it's a fantastic piece. Price is a bit high for me but if you've got the cash to splash then good luck to you.

Some of the PC49 annual that John Worsley provided illustrations for...

I met John Worsley at the Eagle Society annual 'do' in 1997 - here's his autograph...I must have some photos of that somewhere, will see if I can dig them out...