A signed original print by David Hockney, discovered tucked inside a donated book at a Salvation Army charity shop in Norwich, has sold for £41,160 on eBay, in what amounts to one of the more remarkable finds in recent charity shop history.
The book, a copy of Paper Pools published in 1980, was donated over the counter at the Goat Lane shop sometime last year. It sat among the ordinary stream of donations until a long-serving volunteer named Jemma Banks, herself a local artist, picked it up and flicked through the pages. Inside, she found an original lithographic print, signed by Hockney, that had apparently sat undisturbed within the book for 46 years. It was, by all accounts, in perfect condition, looking, as Banks put it, “as fresh as the day it came off the lithographic press.”
Paper Pools is one of the more significant publications associated with Hockney’s work. Released in 1980, it documented his celebrated series of swimming pool paintings, among the most recognisable images in postwar British art. The book itself has always been collectable, but a copy containing an original signed print is an altogether different proposition. Once the Salvation Army Trading Company had researched the find and confirmed its significance, the decision was made to list it through the charity’s Collectables and Curiosity eBay shop.
Signed David Hockney Print Found in Charity Shop
Bidding gathered pace quickly, the charity said, and the final figure of £41,160 far exceeded the sum a donated book might typically raise. The buyer, who has asked to remain anonymous, said he had admired Hockney’s work for many years and described acquiring the print as “incredibly special.” He also noted that the purchase carried an added satisfaction in knowing that the money would go directly toward the Salvation Army’s community work. “It’s wonderful to know that something with such cultural significance can also make a meaningful difference to people’s lives,” he said.
The discovery carries particular poignancy given that Hockney died last month at the age of 88. He had been one of the most widely recognised and genuinely beloved figures in British art, a painter whose work reached well beyond the usual art-world audience and whose swimming-pool paintings, in particular, had entered the broader visual culture in a way few contemporary works manage. The timing means the print arrives in its new home accompanied by a renewed public awareness of just how significant a figure Hockney was, and the sale will stand as a small but pleasing footnote to the response his death prompted.
Banks, whose own practice as an artist gave her the eye to recognise the book’s potential, described the moment of discovery with appropriate wonder. “It was a privilege to hold a genuine signed David Hockney print in my hands,” she said, adding that she had suspected the book might be something out of the ordinary but had not anticipated quite how significant it would turn out to be. The fact that the print had survived in such good condition after nearly five decades between the pages is remarkable in itself.
Major Tracey Bale, who leads the Salvation Army’s Norwich Citadel, credited Banks directly with making the whole thing possible. “Jemma’s knowledge and curiosity made all the difference,” she said. “Thanks to her recognising that this was far more than an ordinary donated book, an incredible piece of art has been preserved and transformed into vital funds for our work.”
It is the kind of story that serves as a reminder that significant things do occasionally find their way into charity shops, and that the people who work in them, often volunteers with knowledge and genuine enthusiasm, are sometimes exactly the right people to notice.
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