At last. I’ve been banging on about PosterConnection’s shop on eBay for quite a while now – its selection is enough to persuade me to be interested in foreign posters every so often. Now, finally, they are also selling some British designs. And good ones too. Pick of the pops has to be this Daphne Padden.
They are asking about £250 for it, and I can’t work out whether that’s a reasonable price or not. This is mainly because the last time I saw one of these going past an auction was at the final Morphets sale, where the prices were definitely depressed by the sheer quantity of what was on offer. What is this worth? Do any of you lot know?
A few other British posters are on offer, of which my favourite is this poster by Harry Stevens from 1960.
Once again, there is also the chance to see Britain from the foreign point of view. Which can be quite different, because I definitely don’t remember Manchester ever looking like this. With the possible exception of the air colour, that is.
But I do rather like this cricketing lion.
He could almost be by Royston Cooper, but in fact he’s the work of one Host Buzas in 1960. Good show.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the title, that’s how all of these posters are described.
There’s good stuff elsewhere on eBay too at the moment. Perhaps most urgently, I need to point you at this Abram Games poster, which is a lovely joyful one without bullets or dead people or blood in it. I know that’s not his fault, he was working for the Army so it was part of the job description, but I do find the results quite hard work sometimes.
The bloke who is selling this had the experience which I can only dream of; they bought a new house and found a whole roll of these posters up in the attic. They’re in very good condition too. I know this for certain because we’ve already bought one, and very lovely it is too.
While we’re on the subject of attic finds, you might want to watch the Antiques Roadshow on Sunday, because a Scottish woman brought in fifteen Keep Calm and Carry On posters – story here, and indeed everywhere else. This brings the total known to exist to somewhere round about twenty and they are apparently worth £1,000 each; although how they’ve worked that out when no one has ever auctioned one before and the rip-offs are plastering the internet like bad grafitti I don’t know. And if they say on the show – as I am pretty sure they will judging by the news story – that they were produced for use in the event of invasion when this is not true I will shout at the television. So there.
Rant over, back to eBay. A couple of posters we are probably not going to buy are these two Festival of Britain designs. They are wonderful, but their prices are already soaring into the stratosphere with a couple of days to go.
Festival of Britain is such a lovely searchable term, isn’t it.
For those of us without a bottomless wallet there is both this Amstutz, from 1967 (the sellers has a number of other GPO posters but I can’t quite get excited about them).
And then this psychedelic oddity.
They’re both being sold abroad, so might not go for that much.
Finally, this is not a poster, but might be of interest to one or two of you.
I’d like to be able to draw just like that. Now off you go, I’ve got a television to shout at.
I’m glad to hear you shout at the television – I do too but I do get a fair amount of stick for it. Phrases like “get some perspective” or “stress about something that matters” get bandied around. So normally I find an excuse to leave the room, it’s much calmer without the telly wittering away at you I find
Oh yes. I used to do it for a living…
The ‘psychedelic oddity’ is illustrated by Paul Christodoulou (b.1937). The references are not of course Edward Gorey as the seller surmises, but Aubrey Beardsley. This is what the V&A have to say about the poster:
“The design contains elements from Beardsley’s illustrations to ‘The Wonderful History of Vergilius the the Sorcerer’, ‘Salome’ including ‘The Stomach Dance’, ‘The Woman in the Moon’, ‘Enter Herodias’, ‘The Eyes of Herod’, ‘The Toilette’, and the title-page; ‘Lysistrata haranguing the Athenian Women’, ‘Messalina returning from the Bath’, ‘Neophyte, and… the Black Art’, ‘The Kiss of Judas’, ‘Sganarelle and the Beggar’; The Pall Mall Magazine, cover designs for ‘The Yellow Book’, Vols I and IV and a self portrait”. A copy came into the V&A collection in 1967 – they date it as c.1966
Elliott’s Westbourne Grove shop (with its art nouveau windows) was on the corner of Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Road.
Thank you for applying some very helpful explication to that poster, it’s much appreciated!
Thanks for the mention on the games posters, I had looked at your blog trying to find some info on them before we put on ebay. I dont suppose you could pop my email address in your blog as a contact if anyone is intested in the posters as unlikely to continue to ebay – have some copies left but its a hassle to keep putting them on! Many thanks, Peter.
Glad to have been of help. If anyone does want one of those very lovely Abram Games posters, then get in contact with me here and I will pass the message on.
Re the Paul Christodoulou poster: I bought this
http://www.onslows.co.uk/Catalogues/PS210613/lot0145.html
in June. A bit of a mistake because the treatment of the shoe is really awkward and not well integrated. I blame my partner – we were having a humdinger running argument and I was distracted! Had I physically attended the auction it would have attracted my attention but I don’t think I would have taken it any further. Still, it has wonderful period style – all dolly birds and swirly art nouveau pastiche (not as dark as photo suggests). And it was a bargain – framing it is costing me £10 more than I paid. And it makes me feel much better that, design flaws notwithstanding, the V&A has one of his posters!
I’ve posted because I also wanted to thank you for a wonderful blog; have only just discovered it and have been glued for days to the computer trying to catch up on your archive and all the links. On the other hand, I hold you personally responsible for feeding a minor buying frenzy; you will be hearing from my accountant and my solicitor in due course.