Pot luck postcards

Admit it. Owning something by a famous name does have an appeal. To gratify these desires – and indulge in a little fundraising too – the Royal College of Art is, for the 12th year, staging an annual postcard exhibition and sale. While not quite the equivalent of a Picasso squiggle on a napkin, the names that have contributed postcards are still pretty impressive. Sir Peter Blake, David Bailey, Tracey Emin, Quentin Blake, Sonia Rykiel, Damien Hurst and David Shrigley are just some of the artists and designers to have submitted their work. As the work is anonymous (on purchase you see the signature on the other side of the card) and mixed up with lesser-known names, what you get depends very much on the keenness of your eye. Unlike identifying people from their baby photos, so strong is the aesthetic thumbprint left behind on many of these postcards that it’s a much easier business to guess who created them – and for £35 you get a pretty picture to boot. But you have to turn up in person, so if you were thinking of being a mysterious telephone bidder, forget it. First come, first served.RCA Secret 2005 is at Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7. The sale days on 25 and 26 November open at 8am. See www.rca.ac.uk