It’s auction time again. Or, as an email I received this week would have it, Reminder Poster Auctioneer.
“We are pleased to offer these posters at call prices far below their value.” they go on to say. ” Don’t hesitate, come and discover for yourself – we are convinced that everybody will find what they are looking for.”
Sadly, we probably won’t though, because they are trying to entice us to bid at a Swiss auction, Swiss not only in the sense of being held in Zurich, but also in that it is almost entirely comprised of Swiss posters. Hundreds of them.
There are some nice things, like the Emil Hotz and Wolfgang Hausaman above, but nothing really to detain us. Except of course, being British, a poster that says Pschitt.
It shouldn’t be funny, really, but it is.
More locally, though, Cameo Auctions are having a travel, advertising, railway and everything but the kitchen sink auction next week. And in amongst a soup of Olympics and Austrian travel posters are a couple of real gems. This Zero from 1947 is my favourite.
But for a real modernist design classic, you couldn’t do much better than this – McKnight Kauffer at the peak of his powers in 1922.
It has an estimate of £3-5000 though, so I probably won’t be bidding on it.
If that’s a bit too painful for your purse there are also a range of London Transport oddities for a more reasonable price (mostly under £100). This 1962 poster by J E Kashdan is probably my favourite.
But there are also these three ‘How to Get There posters’ from the same period.
The first two are by Victoria Davidson, the last by Hans Unger.
Plus this rather over-informative British Railways poster on the subject of freight, by Blake.
But what really grabbed my attention was the close-up of the background. They really should release that as wall-paper.
As if that wasn’t enough, Christies have also released the catalogue for their November poster auction. At first glance, it looks as though the new higher minimum lot price has excluded almost anything that I might be interested in. But I’ll take a proper look at it over the weekend and report back next week.