A cartoon depicting Paul McCartney being looked for pot by airport customs and with an autograph from the singer appeared on Antiques Roadshow season 46, episode 2 on Sunday, Oct., 5. The cartoon was valued between £2,000 – 3,000 ($2,437.12 – 3,655.71 USD).
On the episode, Antiques Roadshow traveled to Crystal Palace Park within the coronary heart of southeast London, revealing all kinds of treasures together with a cigar as soon as belonging to Winston Churchill and classic Vivienne Westwood outfits.
A visitor arrived and mentioned her father Pete was a cartoonist for over 30 years, and that one in every of his cartoons depicted Paul McCartney. The cartoon exhibits McCartney being searched by airport customs for pot in his baggage—drawn when The Beatles star and his late spouse Linda had been arrested for 10 grams of pot in 1984 in Barbados. It’s a single-frame cartoon just like The Far Aspect. McCartney was apparently amused by it and signed the cartoon, pumping up the cartoon’s valuation dramatically.
“Yesterday, all my troubles appeared so far-off,” the cartoon reads. Pete drew McCartney being questioned by customs officers and singing sadly. The authorities emptied his baggage and positioned what appears to be like like a movie canister and a little bit pile of weed on the desk within the cartoon. There’s a newspaper on the ground that reads “Ex-Beatle Barbados Drug Pattern…”
On the backside of the cartoon, it says “Play the pipes of peace”, a reference to “Pipes of Peace,” his No. 1 single on the UK Billboard on the time. “Yesterday” is one in every of 32 No. 1 songs composed or co-written by Paul McCartney—the most covered song of all time, in line with Newsweek.
Antiques Roadshow antiques knowledgeable and frequent visitor Hilary Kay was delighted by the cartoon of The Beatles star. “In turning it over, that is very nice, as a result of it appears to be like like a chunk of HMRC notepaper, it’s acquired the reference there,” Kay mentioned. “So whereas he was drawing this, Paul McCarney was being interviewed, after which, how come Paul McCartney has signed it?”
The visitor replied, “I believe he simply confirmed him the cartoon, that might have been my dad. He would have mentioned ‘Hey, this can be a little bit of a tense second, however this would possibly make you chuckle.’ “
Kay then mentioned, “And Paul McCartney would have thought, ‘That’s simply nice’ and signed it off. How pretty, what a fantastic story. Let’s reduce to the chase, there was your dad sketching away, I’m wondering if he ever thought that it might be priceless?”
The visitor replied, “He wouldn’t have finished, and I can let you know why—my dad hasn’t signed it. It’s going to have been only a fast scribbly factor and I don’t assume he would have valued it in any respect.”
Kay mentioned, “Effectively the market values it extremely, as a result of it’s a really fascinating incident in McCartney’s profession, and it’s too good a narrative. I believe we’re speaking about at the least two to a few thousand kilos.
“And I hope that your dad can be actually proud.”
The daughter mentioned, “I believe he would, and I believe he’d be proud that I’ve finished this as we speak.”
You’ll be able to watch the complete episode here.
The Pot Arrest that Impressed the Cartoon
Inspiring the cartoon, McCartney and his late spouse Linda had been arrested for possession of 10 grams of pot in Barbados in January 1984 and fined $200 {dollars}—$100 every. McCartney was arrested steadily for pot, and I profiled his top five pot arrests in 2019, together with this one. Undeterred, Linda was fined $105 on January 24—eight days later—on one other hashish cost. For the second cost, Linda was with McCartney at Heathrow Airport on their method again to the U.Okay. from their trip in Barbados, and was carrying 5 grams of weed stuffed in a movie canister that they apparently scored through the vacation.
This was nothing in comparison with his most severe arrest, although, 4 years earlier: On January 6, 1980, McCartney was caught with 218 grams (7.7 ounces) of “dynamite weed” into Japan on the Narita Worldwide Airport. He was locked up in a 4 x 8-foot cell in jail for 9 days, and a spokesperson mentioned that the Japan incident set McCartney again $420,000.
Whereas nonetheless in The Beatles, McCartney additionally paid the equal to a 12 months’s price of common wages to run an advert demanding that the U.Okay. legalize pot in a full-page advert to run in The London Occasions on July 24, 1967. The Beatles and band supervisor Brian Epstein joined a number of dozen activists to urge lawmakers to legalize pot in the U.K. All 4 band members smoked and favored hashish—but especially McCartney.
“The legislation towards pot is immoral and unworkable in apply,” the advert title reads. Pot is “the least dangerous of pleasure-giving medication, and […] particularly, far much less dangerous than alcohol.”
McCartney agreed to finance the full-page ad himself, and recruit the band to affix in. Steve Abrams contacted Brian Epstein’s workplace, and shortly afterwards acquired a private verify from McCartney’s funds for £1,800 made out to The Occasions–the equal to £37,303.23 as we speak, or $51,321.78, modified for inflation. McCartney mentioned that 1966’s “Acquired to Get You into My Life,” was his first track formally about pot, although he tried it at the least two years earlier.
This cartoon pays homage to the artist’s troubles with pot.