London Transport poster sale

A series of 350 vintage London Transport posters from the 1920s and 1930s, discovered two years ago in a private collection in the West Country, will be auctioned at Bonhams in London in May.

The posters, many of which promote leisure travel, shopping, nights out and day trips on the London Underground, include work by Edward McKnight Kauffer, Tom Purvis, Austin Cooper, Edward Bawden and Rex Whistler. They are expected to fetch between £200 and £10 000.

Although the posters encompass a range of eras from Art Nouveau to Modernism, the work is predominantly Art Deco, says Bonhams head of prints Robert Kennan. Five pieces from a decorative style London Transport campaign – reminiscent of the tradition of Parisian poster artists Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha – are among the rarer posters in the auction, adds Kennan.

The Golden Age of the British Poster takes place at Bonhams in Bond Street, London, on 9 May.