ORIGINAL artwork for Wings for Victory, a Second World War fundraising campaign, is set to be sold this month at an Oxford book fair.

The initiative was launched by the Government in 1943 to raise money for desperately needed new aircraft.

It asked ordinary people to contribute cash for a Spitfire, or a Wellington or a Lancaster bomber.

Sir Robert Kindersly, organiser of National Savings Committee, kicked off the drive by releasing 1,300 pigeons from Trafalgar Square in London, each carrying a message for a different local savings committee.

Each area was given its own target and a week to raise the money and Oxford’s was £1.5m, a figure it competed against Plymouth to reach in the week of May 29 to June 5.

Book fair Salesmen Michael Kemp and Peter Hill are set to sell five watercolour artworks from the campaign that they think are unpublished and likely unique.

Mr Kemp, a bookseller based in Kent, said: “There are two or three known and recognised national posters, but it is clear that many local campaigns created their own publicity, specific to their locality.

“Most of these handmade posters would have been discarded or recycled during one of the many paper collections at the time, so the survival of not one but five examples from one locality must be a rare event.”

Money for the aircraft funding campaign was raised mainly by organisations including schools, clubs and societies, Mr Kemp said.

He added: “Each county was given a target, and within each county, individual cities, towns and even parishes were given their own targets.”

Mr Hill, a former Oxford bookseller who lives in Sussex and organises the book fair, said he obtained the artwork from a sale in Russell Square, London.

He said: “They were these little bundles of rolled-up paper. I have always collected Oxford material and thought they looked rather interesting.

“They turned out to be a terrific series of posters and before we bought them we had never heard of the Wings for Victory.

“The designs for Oxford are also particularly striking.”

The five pieces of artwork will go on sale together with an asking price of £1,500, at the Oxford Book Fair on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26.

The event, at Oxford Brookes University’s Headington campus in Gypsy Lane, is expected to draw more than 100 book dealers offering thousands of rare and collectable items.

Organiser Tom Lintern-Mole said of the war artwork: “I think they will attract quite a bit of interest.

“We are a book fair but we are increasingly seeing more demand for images as well and that is something becoming part of the trade.

“There will hopefully be something for everyone there.”

The book fair will run between 12pm and 6pm on April 25 and between 10am and 4pm on April 26.

Admission costs £2.