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Paris by Moonlight

auctions

Apologies for not posting on Friday, but I got rather absorbed in back-office stuff here at the blog and then suddenly the day was gone.

All of which means that the auction in which this appeared has now been and gone as well.

But it’s worth taking a look at anyway, because it’s a slightly surprising Daphne Padden.

Now sometimes she is given credit for some of her father’s designs, but this is definitely signed by her. It’s just earlier work. I’ve only ever seen a couple like this, but she must have been producing more than that I would have thought. So if anyone can dig out any more examples, I’d love to see them.

The auction was PosterConnection in San Franscisco, so there wasn’t exactly a lot else of interest to detain us; the usual handful of BEA/BOAC posters and that’s about it. Well, apart from this.

Which isn’t really interesting because of the design, but mainly because I think they should have been prosecuted under the Trades Descriptions Act. I’ve been to Dungeness and I don’t believe it ever looked like that. And where’s that liner headed anyway?

Oh, and if you’re wondering what exactly I spent an entire morning fiddling with on here, click on one of the posters above. Nifty, eh? And you’ll see exactly why I needed it later on this week.

Proper Gander

auctions, designers

An auction in Connneticut has this listed as a propaganda poster.

Which is clearly bonkers, even if it was produced in 1938. At the same time though I find the idea intriguing. Is it propaganda for trees, for the Chilterns or just for the subtle arts of Britishness? Or are all London Transport posters in fact propaganda on behalf of Britishness, or the English? It’s quite a persuasive thought and one I might take further one day.

In addition, it’s a very good poster too. It came up in an auction recently and I liked it then, but didn’t quite get round to mentioning it. The artist is Claire Leighton who, the London Transport Museum site tells me, had a really interesting life. Although this, sadly, only left her time to design one other poster for London Transport, in the same year.

I think I like that one even better. And it’s very seasonal in this time of showers and lambing. Has anybody got one spare for me?

Posters Produce Results

auctions

No arguing with that, is there.

Cecilia Murphy, 1932, est. $1,700-2,000

Although for today’s post, the results we are mostly bothered about come from auctions, as all at once there is a rush of new sales on the horizon and I can hardly keep up.

That poster above is included in Poster Auction International’s May 6 sale in New York. There isn’t a great deal else of British interest there, except to say that it’s always good to see something by Ashley Havinden.

Ashley Havinden, 1932, est $2,000-2,500

I’m also going to make one of my periodic exemptions for things foreign, mainly because this exhibition poster by Max Bill is just an extraordinary piece of design for 1945.

USA Baut. 1945 MAX BILL (1908-1994) vintage exhibition poster
Max Bill, 1945, est. $800-1,000

It still looks modern now, so back then it must have seemed like a visitation from the future.

Other than that, there is what looks like a chance to buy the complete works of Alphonse Mucha, but if you’ve got enough money to do that – estimates go as high as $90,000 – you’re probably not reading this blog for advice on posters.

There’s a bit more to detain the rest of us at the forthcoming Van Sabben auction on April 21st, although most of it comes from the well-trodden paths of airline advertising, wartime and post-war propaganda posters and the London Underground.

Having said that, even these can deliver a few surprises, the greatest of which is probably this Beaumont. In fact more of a fright than a surprise really; Mr Crownfolio is very worried that someone has beheaded their mum and put her in the cabbage patch.

Beaumont vintage propaganda poster 1950 cabbages
Leonard Beaumont, 1950, est. €120-400

Even at the top end, that estimate seems fairly reasonable when you consider that the lot also includes three other posters of the same ilk, all dating, I think, from after the war.

On a similar theme is this poster, although with the added bonus of an interestingly menacing tone.

Anonymous, 1946, est. €80-160

Once again, there is a slew of airline posters, many of which have featured on this blog before. Of those, the most desirable is probably this Abram Games.

Abram Games, 1949, est. €650-1,000

But there are a few novelties here too. This is one.

Glad, 1949, est €150-280.

I have never come across Glad before, but it’s really rather good, so if anyone can knows more, please do let me know.

The second is by John Bainbridge, about whom I do know more and have been meaning to post about for some time, because he is both excellent and not well enough known.

John Bainbridge, 1949, est. €150-250

Although he worked in Britain for much of his career, John Bainbridge was originally from Australia, and there is a really good archive of his work over there, which I must post about one day.

There aren’t many London Transport posters for once, but those few are quite unusual. This first one can only be from the 1930s.

Roy Meldrum, 1933, est. € 300-600.

Van Sabben also have the poster below dated to 1935, which seemed a bit odd to me. And a brief delve into the LT Museum site gives a date of 1950 instead, as well as confirming that it is one half of a pair poster.

James Arnold, 1950, est. €120-250.

Again, this looks like quite a bargain, as it also gets you this S John Woods poster from the same year as well.

Oddly, the other half of the farms pair poster is also on sale, but in a different lot.

James Arnold, 1950, est. €100

I’m no completist when it comes to pair posters – would you ever really put the other half up on the wall? So given the choice, I think I’d probably rather have the S John Woods instead.

As if all of that wasn’t enough for one day, Poster Connection also have a sale in San Francisco on 28th April. There are airline posters, and that’s probably all I need to say about it. But I did rather like this one.

Anonymous, 1948, est. $200-360.

But it’s not just the gaiety I like, it’s also a reminder of the huge gulf between Britain and America at this point. Britain was still enduring austerity, worse even than during the war, and this brightly coloured poster would have been an unimaginable luxury, depicting foreign travel which could only be dreamed off. Such stuff were for export only, as the country desperately tried to entice Americans over to spend their money, and so help pay off the war debt.

Profit Margin

auctions, eBay

Following on from the comments on my last piece about the inexplicable gap between eBay prices and elsewhere, a couple of instructive compare and contrasts for you.

Firstly, this excellent piece of sixties-iana, about which I know nothing except the rather obvious fact that it is for Pan Am.

Oh, and that its current asking price is $3,250. If you’re tempted, it’s in an online exhibition of travel posters held by the International Vintage Poster Dealers Association. I am not, you will be unsurprised to learn, a member.

However, if you are more of a fan of the poster than the price, then you can rue your missed opportunity, because it did turn up on eBay at the end of last year, where it fetched just $384.99.

Example two we have seen only the other day, as it’s Victor Pasmore’s exhibition poster which is up at Christies next month.

This too came up on eBay only about six weeks ago, when it went for just £125. In case you need reminding, the Christies estimate is £600-800.

Now I know that price can depend on condition, but even so the discrepancies are huge. And given that both these posters are fairly rare (I have never ever seen either of them before now), the odds must be quite good that it’s the same poster being sold on.

One more example, although in this case the price discrepancy is partly explained by the fact that the original listing is in German. Tom Eckersley’s book on Poster Design, the source of this wonderful illustration.

Now the last time this went past on eBay, the asking price £75, give or take a penny. But the lucky purchaser in the German auction got it for just one euro. And you can’t really blame that on the whole thing being written in foreign, because it did say ‘Tom Eckersley’ very clearly in the title.

So, eBay: an enigma and a mystery. And probably also quite a good business model if you’re interested in buying cheap and selling expensive. Any economists out there with any more interpretations?

While we’re on the subject of Tom Eckersley, another way round high auction prices is available. The V&A are selling reproductions of his Keep Britain Tidy Poster as part of the merchandising for their Modern British Design show.

Which I suppose may mean that there is an Eckersley poster in there somewhere, along with everything else. I really ought to go and see that and we are going to London in a few weeks time. But given that we are already planning to subject small Crownfolio to the Jeremy Deller exhibition, the V&A might be a step too far for one day. Perhap we’ll go and see the dinosaurs instead.

Informative

auctions, Uncategorized

Today’s post is crowdsourcing, Quad Royal style, because lots of very kind people have been sending me links to posters on sale or sold recently. So the least I can do, of course, is share them.

The first, and following on nicely from my last post, is this Daphne Padden poster for British Railways, which is up for sale in America via eBay.

It’s a great poster, and one that I have never ever seen before and can’t find much trace of either, apart from the fact that one sold in the Midlands about three years ago. Despite all that, and an attempt at a frame, the price seems a bit steep to me at £300+ for a starting bid. But thank you to Mike Jacob for putting that my way nonetheless.

Also forthcoming, and emailed to me by Mr Crownfolio upstairs, is a Christies poster sale. But don’t get too excited, this is an Olympic special, and there are very few Olympic posters I can get enthusiastic about, with this Richard Beck from 1956 perhaps the only exception.

Richard Beck 1956 Olympic poster
Richard Beck, 1956, est £800-1,200

And I definitely don’t want to buy an Olympic torch (there are a surprising number on offer too). Given that, there isn’t a great deal else to report from the catalogue. All I can point you towards are a handful of McKnight Kauffer’s.

McKnight Kauffer, 1937. est. £700-900

The one below has to be my favourite, although this is less a result of the image than the estimate.

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) ENO'S "FRUIT SALT" lithograph in colours, 1925,
McKnight Kauffer, 1925, est. £1,200 – 1,800

We got another one of this series on eBay about eighteen months ago, only for a small fraction of what Christies thinks it is worth, an experience which never fails to please me. And it’s a nicer image, to boot.

There is also a classic Abram Games.

Abram Games, 1941, est. £2,000 – 3,000

Along with this Peter Roberson, which I am guessing only slips through Christies minimum lot requirements thanks to the Festival of Britain interest.

Peter Roberson (1907-1989) VISITOR'S LONDON, FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN lithograph in colours, 1950
Peter Roberson, 1950, est. £1,200 – 1,600

My favourite British poster is probably this obscure and slightly pallid Victor Pasmore.

Victor Pasmore, 1948, est. £600 – 800

Note the use of British in the sentence above. Because once again, the local talent is having to compete for my attention with a small but lovely set of David Klein posters.

David Klein, 1960, est. £800 – 1,200

David Klein, 1958, est. £800 – 1,200

That first one in particular is fabulous, if a touch unaffordable.

The bad news is not just the small selection of posters I want to look at either. As far as I can tell from Christies’ Calendar, this will be their only poster sale this spring. And eBay’s gone into the doldrums too. There’s nothing left for it, I may have to start trawling the railwayana catalogues to keep my hopes up.

There are still a few glimmerings in the provincial auction scene as well, although I might have to get my act together a bit in reporting them to you. James Manning pointed out that Dreweatts have been selling more Percy Drake Brookshaws in a recent sale.

Now I say more because one of my first ever posts on here was about some of his posters being sold at the same auction house. Both then and now they seem to have come from the artist’s family, who have clearly been disposing of what they have in dribs and drabs. And also saving the best stuff until last.

What’s most amusing about these lots is the discrepancy between the estimates and the results. I would have been very happy to get the poster above for the £50-60 that Dreweatt’s estimated. Sadly it went for £550. Although perhaps not sadly, given that I missed the sale.

That wasn’t a freak occurrence either, all the posters reached similarly high prices. The boat race poster below was estimated at £100-150, but sold for almost ten times that, £1,100.

While this classic would have been the bargain of the century at its £60-80 estimate.

But it too went for £1,100.

I swear I will never ever fully understand the poster market. Prices like that make me think that the internet is doing its job in flattening out the market, as anyone with an interest and a tiny bit of understanding of searches on websites can find almost any lot up for sale and bid on it. But why doesn’t that work with eBay then? Why can we buy a McKnight Kauffer on there for a tenth of its Christies price? I think we might need to write a specialist piece of poster market theory, so if there is an economist in the house, can they get in touch? And for anyone else, please do keep sending the auction links and anything else that takes your fancy, they’re very much appreciated.

File under miscellaneous

auctions, eBay

The email from the Swiss auction house Poster-Auctioneer announcing their latest auction has once again dropped into my mailbox. So I flicked through page after page of foreign posters, pretty sure that none of them would appear on the blog. Until I came to this Donald Brun and my resolution crumbled.

It’s the perfect mixture of sophisticated and daft, isn’t it. Clearly they are expecting quite a lot of people to think the same, because it has an estimate of 900 swiss francs, which is over £600. Never mind.

Once I’d given in to that, I thought I might as well include this poster too, mainly on the grounds that it’s a kind of style that really the British never even attempted, and so I do hanker after it a bit.

It’s by the rather brilliantly named Kurtz Helmut, and isn’t dated, although it doesn’t really need one, and it could be yours for in the region of 500 francs.

Elsewhere, there are some bits and bobs of Barbara Jones available on eBay should anyone be interested. Exhibit A is a handful of original drawings, as brought to my attention by James Manning. This one is the best, mainly because of the dog.

The better treasure, for me at least, is a copy of Design for Death, which is a wonderful book and definitely worth buying in its own right (as I have explained at some length on here before). But how much better if it comes with this.

It’s Barbara Jones’ own Christmas Card from 1960, featuring two owls who bear more than a passing resemblance to Twit and Howlett. We do have the book, so I cannot possibly justify spending a minimum of £25 on one small card. But I am tempted.