I mentioned a while ago that we’d got something interesting on eBay. Well now they’ve arrived so you are going to have to suffer a bit of crowing. Because it’s not only this.
But also this.
And this too.
Along with the other three posters in the set. As mentioned before on here, they were designed for the Sunday Times by Patrick Tilley sometime in the 1960s, and I’ve never seen one in the wild before, never mind six.
Interestingly, they look much better in reality than as scans or digital images; something I think to do with the collaged newsprint showing much more.
They came from a dealer in the U.S. who had in turn bought them from the widow of a man who had worked in the print industry and travelled to Europe a lot on business. He clearly brought back things that he liked from his travels. And then kept them.
They were originally up for sale on eBay, and as I mentioned on Monday there’s an interesting cautionary tale here about the ways in which eBay can fail. Which is mostly that if something isn’t already popular, people won’t be searching for it and so it won’t be found.
I’ve never seen a Patrick Tilley poster up for sale, so we never search for them – and nor, I will hazard, do many other people. So, up on eBay without the right keywords and no one finding them, this amazing set of posters only reached $20, which wasn’t anywhere near the reserve. We then did a bit of negotiation and got them for rather more than that. Although it still feels like a fair price. But maybe only to us, who knows.
Oh stone the crows….so there is more than fools gold out there, what a fabulous haul of booty. It gives hope, I shall widen my searches globally to include everything ever made in the history of the world or something similar in the vain hope of securing a safe European home for a similarly spectacular find. Very jealous.
I can’t quite remember the Tilley posters from the 1960s.
I first saw them on the cover of Philip Thompson and Peter Davenport’s “Dictionary of Visual Langauge (1980). Quite a useful and interesting book.
What a shame that there aren’t more of these kinds of poster about.
Rick Poynor discusses the ‘Dictionary of Visual Language’ book in the current Eye magazine.
Thanks for the comments and also the link to the book – a copy has been found on Abebooks so I will be enjoying it shortly. And yes, there definitely ought to be more of this kind of thing about.
You may know – but there is a piece on Patrick Tilley’s association with Artist Partners illustration agency (he did the Sunday Times posters through this agency) on their website:
http://www.artistpartners.com/history/retro.html
The website also recommends your blog!
“An informative and educational read it shows just what was achieved in the world of graphic design and illustration decades before computers.
Grab yourself a coffee and spend awhile perusing and enjoying the best of British design and illustration – something Artist Partners have contributed to and are proud to have been a part of since 1951!”
Thanks for that – yes AP have been in touch, and are clearly still very discerning (!).
In fact I think I first came across Patrick Tilley’s work through them one way and another. That’s not only through their website, but also because we have one of their brochures from the early 1950s (I think) which I blogged about a while back :
http://vintageposterblog.com/2010/03/18/find-me-an-artist-from-1953-please/
http://vintageposterblog.com/2010/03/25/ap2-part-two/
You are extremely lucky to have these wonderful posters. Patrick Tilley was a great designer
and these works are just genius. He has always been a great inspiration to me and still is!
There is plenty more in the Patrick Tilley Folio!
Sophie Tilley
Thanks for that – there is indeed,and in fact there will be some more Patrick Tilley on here soon.
Yes indeed a great purchase. He is my dad and i wish i had seen these to have been able to buy them. He has many great works thankfully in the volts and originals so we are very lucky. As i mentioned a truly inspiring artist of that time and still very much alive and full of inspiration and creativity today.