A saucy set of postcards which were rescued from a skip in Calne 20 years ago are expected to fetch thousands at auction today.

The 25 original paintings by Phil Millar - nicknamed Pedro - were the original designs for a set of 'Carry On' style postcards which were popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

The pristine watercolours were almost lost forever when they were dumped in a skip in Calne in 1989.

Des Hudd, 69, who runs the skip firm with wife Barbara, 55, found the paintings stuffed in a plastic bag and decided to keep them safe.

Mr Hudd, who now lives in Hatherleigh, Devon, said: ''I'm a bit of a magpie and thought these paintings might be worth a few bob so kept them in my loft. I was always a fan of the naughty postcards so was overjoyed when I stumbled across this pristine collection.''

The pictures will be auctioned by Warwick and Warwick Auctioneers in Warwickshire today, and are expected to fetch upwards of £50 each.

One of the postcards features a leggy blonde being asked at a job interview: ''I want a girl used to handling tools, and not afraid of getting a bit dirty.''

Another features a large woman being prodded by a man using a garden hoe. She cheekily remarks: ''Don't apologise Mr Brown, - it takes more than a little poke to offend me.''

Colin Such, postcard expert for Warwick and Warwick auctioneers said: ''You cannot get any rarer than this set of pictures which show just how suggestive the humour was in the 1960s.

''Pedro would have been commissioned to do the paintings which would then go to the studio and be printed into postcards. The postcards were then sold to thousands of holiday makers visiting the seaside.

''It is a thrill to see the original paintings these postcards came from because they were part of the fabric of the times.''

Mr Millar took over from famous seaside postcard artist Donald McGill who had his artwork banned by the Seaside Authorities because it was deemed ''too suggestive''.

Mr Such said: ''Pedro took Donald McGill's work that much further and was far more racy in his humour. It was a sign of the times that he was never banned while Donald's work was.''