‘Tolkien pictures’ bought for six eggs

‘THEY OUGHT TO BE IN A MUSEUM’: Alan Haynes with the pictures

EXCLUSIVE

By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor

It was an unorthodox art deal but one that pleased both buyer and seller.

But when farmer Joseph Wilson exchanged six eggs for two pictures by a convalescing First World War soldier in Hull, he could not have known what a bargain he had struck.

The artist – a young officer who made the pictures almost entirely from used stamps – was then known simply as “John”. Although the pictures are unsigned, he is believed to have been the future Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien.

AUTHOR: J.R.R. Tolkien in his Army uniform

After serving in France with 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, Tolkien was sent home with trench fever, and like others being treated at Brooklands Officers’ Hospital in Cottingham Road, was encouraged to make art as part of his rehabilitation. He also drafted several of his earliest literary works during his stay.

The pictures, which are of two stylishly dressed women and dated 1918, were handed down generations of the farmer’s family, along with the story of how he got them. They are now in the possession of his grandson, Alan Haynes – who until recently had kept them in his loft.

Joseph Wilson rented Inglemire House Farm on Cottingham Road, which is now the site of a McDonald’s, and met the soldier while delivering milk and other produce to the hospital each day with his horse and cart. He married Johanna Coverdale and the couple had ten children, one of whom was Alan’s mother Eva.

ART: The pictures were created almost entirely from used stamps

The pictures were hung in a prominent place in the farmhouse.

“It was like a joke in the family that ‘John’ had swapped the two pictures for half-a-dozen eggs,” said Alan. “It was only when Lord of the Rings came out that people started to recognise the name. They were hung in the hallway at the farm; the first thing you looked at.”

Describing how he got them, Alan said: “My aunt Olive took them off the wall and said ‘You can have them’. She gave them to me. I’ve never had them on the wall; they were upstairs in the loft.”

DEAL: Farmer Joseph Wilson with his horse and cart

Alan, 83, from Willerby, said he now wants the pictures to go to “a good home”.

“I think they ought to go to a museum somewhere, otherwise it’s the sort of thing that will just end up in a charity shop when I’m gone,” he said.

“If they were signed they would be worth a bob or two, but they ought to go in a Tolkien museum. They’re part of history. It would be nice to find a good home for them.”