Visual Signalman

Despite the holidays, there are a few faint signs of life on eBay now.  In fact more than faint, as this 1963 Tom Eckersley went for a whopping £123.65 a few days ago.  Not to us, I hasten to add.

Tom Eckersley vintage London Transport poster 1960s Cutty sark

I’m not sure what’s going on here.  It may be that later Eckersley posters are starting to rise in value, which would make sense as they certainly seem to be very popular out there on the visual web. Equally, it could be that people are engaging in silly bidding because there is so little else on offer right now.

It’s not just the Eckersleys either. The seller had a few more London Transport posters for auction, so this John Farleigh went for £83 too, in spite of some of the more eccentric (and less informative) photographs I’ve seen for a while.  This is the best, which isn’t saying much.

John Farleigh vintage London Transport poster eBay tulips lo winter is past

They dated it as 1960s but it looks a bit earlier to me.  But I can’t find it on the London Transport Museum site or indeed anywhere else, so if someone out there knows more, I’d love to hear from you.

We did get this Carol Barker for just £23, though.

Carol Barker vintage Hampstead poster London Transport

She’ll be fashionable one of these days, you mark my words.

Elsewhere on eBay, in America to be precise, there are a set of three World War Two British Navy posters for sale.  They’re pretty expensive too, at $140 a pop starting price, but I mention them because they are quite interesting.

Visual Signalman vintage world war two propaganda poster British Navy

They’re a celebration of what are clearly some of the less exciting jobs within the Navy – Stores Assistant anyone?  Although I don’t know whether their aim is recruitment, or just to reassure the people in these jobs that they are also a valuable part of the Navy too.

Stores Assistants vintage world war two poster ebay

What makes them really interesting is that I have never ever seen them anywhere else before (and goodness knows I have been looking at more than enough World war Two posters over the last few months).  They are by an artist called M Bertram about whom I know nothing either and generally they are a complete mystery.  But I do think they are real.

Finally, my searches for the John Farleigh poster above did lead me to this.  Which needs no further comment really.

John  Farleigh poster vintage London Transport 1937 yes really

  • One of the pictures of the Tulip Farleigh appears to show a January 1965 print code, but it is not easy to make out.
    Another copy of this poster came up on eBay a year ago and I was surprised then to find it missing from the LTM archive. This was one of the things that made me question how comprehensive that collection is. May be they bought it?!?!

  • I know what you mean, I always think their archive is infalliable. Although I don’t know why, given that I once sat next to one of their curators at a Christies sale and watched him buy almost industrial quantities of posters. I’d be interested to know what their buying policy is.

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