A notorious mystery artist who has been leaving beer mats adorned with the image of singer Mario Lanza has pulled one of his biggest ever stunts in Wolverhampton.

For 50 years the unknown artist, identified only by a hat and raincoat, has been leaving his hand-made mats in pubs, call boxes and libraries around the Black Country.

Normally he leaves just one or two but at the weekend drinkers in the Red Lion in Bilston Road were astonished to find 10 of the mats lined up on the window sill of the gents’ toilets.

Sign writing firm boss Steve Holden, who was in the pub on Saturday, discovered the mats when he popped into the toilets.

The 56-year-old father of three said: “I saw these very well-drawn, hand- made beer mats and I wondered what on earth they were doing there.

“I thought that they wouldn’t last long where they were so I mentioned them to the barman and suddenly the entire room went mad.

“I had no idea what they were but everybody started talking about this anonymous artist who has apparently been doing this for 50 years.”

Regulars decided that it must have been an unknown customer who came into the pub earlier and kept his hat pulled down low, ordered half a pint of beer and sat drinking it alone.

Mr Holden, of Primrose Avenue, Bushbury, said: “We think he must have been watching who went in and out of the toilet. Once he was certain no-one was in there he went in.”

The beer mats depict American-Italian opera singer Mario Lanza, who died in 1959, but each one has the name of a different song and the year it was released such as Because You’re Mine from 1952. Attempts to contact the artist have been unsuccessful.

Cards have appeared at Cradley Heath Library and even on an advertising board by the Express & Star head office in Queen Street, Wolverhampton.It is believed he has left around 2,000 cards in the Black Country since the death of Lanza.