auctions Archives - Page 17 of 19

It’s the economy, stupid

auctions

At least that’s my theory. I can’t account for the Onslows’s sale otherwise. More posters than usual didn’t sell, or didn’t make their reserves, and very few indeed made more than their estimate. It seems that after two weeks of hearing about nothing but austerity budgets and cost-cutting across the board, everyone is now too frightened to spend money on posters.

There were a few honourable exceptions. This World War Two poster reached £420, from an original estimate of £100-150.

I don’t quite know why; plenty of other wartime posters didn’t sell that well, or at all, and it’s not even a particular design classic – I prefer the idea of the Londoner’s Land Club (which I would join in a flash if it still existed) to the actual poster itself.

A few other categories did well – Munich Olympics posters, and a smattering of French things and old things that I can’t get too excited about. This Frank Sherwin poster also went for £20 over its £600 high estimate.

But many classic railway posters weren’t as popular as they might have been. Lots of Terence Cuneos and landscape Quad Royals were passed over. As was this delightful chap, from Studio Seven.

I’d have thought him irresistable, but not even cute can sell in a recession it seems.

Mind you, I can see why there might be a shortage of buyers here. After Morphets and Bloomsbury’s big railway poster sale in New York, I imagine quite a few collectors may have spent over their annual budget already. Or they may just have auction fatigue. I’m getting quite close to it, and I’ve hardly bought anything.

There were some exceptions to the general trend though. The Shell Educational Posters all did well, almost all of them selling at their £50-70 estimates.

Which is possibly surprising, because the set on eBay which I blogged about recently, have almost entirely failed to sell for £60 each. (Should you fancy a bargain, they’re now coming round again at a more enticing £39.99 each.)

Other than that, the strange rule of the poster world was once again proven, which is that original artworks are less valuable than the mass-produced reproductions that sprang from them. (Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr Benjamin). There were a whole set – nine in total – of Frank Newbould railway safety posters. Each one paired the poster with the artwork and one or more original design treatments.

You’d have thought it would be a museum or a collector’s dream; but none of them made their £150-200 estimate, and a few failed to sell altogether. I’d love to know where they came from.

Also of interest is that a selection of 1960s London Underground posters (like this 1963 Frank Dobson) almost entirely went for £55-60 each.

Which perhaps makes the estimates at the Morphets sale look more reasonable, a thought which quite perks me up. Perhaps I’d better go and order that truck then…

But if you fancy buying any posters in the meantime, Onslows will consider offers on any of the unsold lots, so take a look, there may be a bargain or two to be had.

Disclaimer: this is an entirely personal view and has probably missed lots of interesting prices out. Please feel free to point them out, or to suggest any other theories you may have about why auctions and prices are as they are.

Throw a Coach Party

auctions

It’s here. The much anticipated Morphets everything-you-ever-wanted-to-own-from -the-sixties-and-seventies Malcolm Guest catalogue has arrived at The Saleroom and on their website.

Wales and Coach tours 2 vintage posters from morphets
Donald Smith, two posters for Hants and Dorset Coaches

My brain is going to take a while to absorb it all, especially in this heat – there are over a thousand lots, and with many of them multiples of between two and fifteen posters, I haven’t a clue how many posters are actually for sale. Really quite a lot I should think, and all I’ve been able to do is skim through them. So, for the moment, here are a few nice items chosen at random for your entertainment. And a few first thoughts too.

Bruce Angrave, Party Travel for 8 or more, vintage rail poster morphets sale
Bruce Angrave, Party Travel, British Railways poster

There are huge numbers of posters which I certainly have never come across at auction or illustrated before, from, the whimsical to the modern.

Longman Party Outings By Rail vintage railway poster from Morphets
Longman, Party Outings By Rail, British Railways

John Wright, Rail Rover Tickets, British Railways

And a few which seem to have fallen off the first sale, like this rather lovely bit of GWR modernism.

Ralph Mott Factories and Factory Sites, GWR

There are also a lot of coach posters in addition to the railway collection – well over three hundred.

Studio Seven, Hire a Coach

Karo/Jacques, Luxury Coach Tours; Send Your Parcels by Bus

But mostly it’s the sheer quantity of posters itself that I find overwhelming. I could – and probably will – do a whole post just about the Royston Coopers that they have, most of which I’ve never seen before.

I should also point out that, once again, the estimates are insanely low. That Royston Cooper is estimated at £50-100, as are the two Daphne Paddens below.

If even half the lots go for close to these estimates I will a) eat my hat and b) need a removal van to bring all of my purchases down from Harrogate.

It gets even madder when you start to look at the multiples.

Anyone fancy the Games, Eckersley and two Ungers above for £100 to £150? I do, but I also don’t rate my chances too highly on that.

A full appraisal will follow in due course, but it really is worth going to take a look yourself – and then please do come back and tell me what you think.

Don’t Burn Your Shoes

auctions

I saw this poster at auction almost seven years ago now, but have never forgotten it.

This poster really brings home to me the Orwellian side of Britain during the Second World War, a place where posters are shouting at you about things you’ve never even thought of doing (I’d never worried about burning my shoes until I saw it, but perhaps I should have done).

What I always wonder about though, is what people felt about it at the time. Did they feel nagged or did they accept it as a necessary part of the war? Or did they just ignore it? I could, possibly, find out the answer to those questions, as there is some Mass Observation research on what people thought of the wartime posters. But to do so I’d need to travel down to Brighton, and I haven’t quite done that yet. I will one day, though – and then let you know.

More to the point of this post, ‘Don’t Burn Your Shoes’ was designed by Beverley Pick. As is this one, which, although not quite as shouty, gives you more of a feel for the colour and design.

They’re all from the Onslows’ auction in November 2003. Although we were there, it was very early on in our poster-collecting days, so I had no idea what things were worth, or even what I particularly liked. Which is why ‘Don’t Burn Your Shoes’ up there went for just £30 – and not to me.

This one went for just £10.

And there are more (and more and more).

With hindsight, I think the Beverley Pick archive was being sold off. There were at least thirty or more posters up for sale, and some duplicates. But after posting about Beverley Pick a few weeks ago, I thought it was worth bringing these posters into circulation, as quite a few of them aren’t illustrated anywhere else.

Sadly, I have not been able to find out a single thing more about Beverley Pick since I last posted. I can’t even bring you a picture. The best I can do is this.

Designer Mr Beverley Pick at work on drawing board. CU. His hand painting star on sketch of Regent Street. CU.

So at least I know he’s a man. He is, I believe, painting stars on the 1955 Christmas decorations for Oxford Street. But if you want to see his face, you’ll have to watch the Pathe News footage here. If anyone can improve on this, please do let me know.

Sepsis, fuel and dark beer

auctions

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the Onslows catalogue is now up and complete – eighteen lovely pages of posters for you to look at it, and all of which you can bid for via the internet.

So with the sale less than two weeks away, I thought I’d better take a proper look.

If you are a fan of a) World War One and Two, b) Guinness or c) French posters, you’re in luck, as there’s plenty of all of those.

This Mount/Evans salvage poster is probably my favourite of the WW2 lots – and one I’ve never seen before as well. Large tranches of the rest – unless you like H.M. Bateman cartoons – are more of historical than graphic interest. Although, having said that, I rather like this railway fuel saving poster too.

As well as this fantastically stark warning – also from the railways.

At an estimate of £70-£100, I might even think about that, were it not for the fact that I’d never ever put it up on the wall.

Then (lots 246 – 250 should you be looking for them) there are a small cache of classics, including Henrion, Keeley and three by Abram Games.

Every one a classic, but all also sufficiently grim that I can’t see any of them going up around the house any time soon.

In the world of Guinness, meanwhile, there are a few Gilroy classics on offer, but I rather like this 1962 one by R Peppe, not just for being different, but it does help.

And after that, I just got a bit overwhelmed. There are film posters, London Transport posters – including this 1953 gem by Sheila Robinson.

We once sold a poster of hers once; with hindsight I have no idea why.

There’s also this 1964 design for Kew Gardens, which is by Tom Eckersley’s wife, Mary Kessel, poster trivia fans.

There are of course railway posters, including Terence Cuneo’s Pictures of Trains, lots of 1972 Munich Olympic posters about which I know nothing, and – as mentioned in my last post – industrial quantities of Shell educational posters, at least 22, although I might well have missed some. The Hillier is still the best one on offer, although I am also a big fan of the David Gentleman series on The Roads of Britain.

There’s at least one missing here – The Great West Road with his wonderful image of Silbury Hill – and quite possibly more, but they’re still a great set on a deeply under-rated subject. But I will not digress.

If your a fan of Kraftwerk, you might want to buy this.

And finally (because I am rambling furiously and must stop) I like this, for no good reason at all.

Surely that prize specimen has to be worth more than the £30-40 estimate.

This is of course a fantastically partial review of what’s on offer, and has almost certainly left out all the most valuable posters. So please do and take a look for yourselves, and I’ll come back once the auction’s over and see what I missed out first time around.

By coach to Harrogate

auctions

In the immortal words of Smash Hits, it’s back – back, back, back.

Tom Eckersley British Railways Paignton poster 1960
Tom Eckersley, Paignton, 1960

What else can I be talking about but the gift that keeps on giving, the Morphets auction of Malcolm Guest railway posters. Part One was in January, Part Two I mostly ignored because its main attraction was a set of Heath Robinson drawings. But I’ve been anticipating Part Three – all the posters from 1960 and later – for some time now. The catalogue still isn’t up yet, but Morphets have now put a few more teasers on their site. And, to my relief, there are some real gems.

The relief is because I’d heard that there were a lot of letterpress and otherwise dull posters up for sale – although with more than 2,000 posters in the auction, there may well still be. I was also in fear of this kind of thing.

As well as this this too.

But the good news is that, in this preview at least, they seem to be in the minority. Not only are there some fairly entertaining railway posters,

Brighton and Hove British Railways vintage poster 1961
Brighton and Hove, Joseph McKeown, 1961

in varying degrees of kitsch/Ladybird books style, but what brings me real joy is that Malcolm Guest clearly went a bit off-topic and started collecting coach posters as well, seemingly quite a few if this preview is anything to go by.

I reckon that these three at least are by Daphne Padden (of whom more later this week).

But I don’t know for definite, because there’s nothing but the images up at the moment. Any names and identification are my own guesses or research, which could be proved very wrong when the catalogue comes out.

There are two definite Royston Cooper’s as well, with a probable third too.

The last one I’ve never seen before, either.

And then there are just some great posters about which I know nothing. Like these.

Any ideas? In particular, if anyone knows who the artist of the last one is, please do let me know as it’s driving Mr Crownfolio insane right now. He reckons it might be someone associated with Private Eye, if that helps at all.

And there is a rather nice Abram Games from 1967, which may well be a coach poster too.

The sale itself is on 21st and 22nd of July, which by my reckoning gives me just six weeks to work out how I am going to afford any or, ideally, all of this. Right now, I have no idea.

To war, again

auctions

It’s auctions a-go-go this week. And the next on our list is yet another tranche of World War Two posters for Wallis and Wallis down in darkest Sussex, to be sold on Tuesday.

I’m rather reluctant to deal with what’s on offer this time round (61 lots, a good hundred posters at a guess) because the whole set up makes my head ache. It’s not just the fact that they’ve listed the posters as being either A3 or A1, when they surely must be in Imperial measurements.

Even more frustratingly, only eleven of the posters are actually illustrated, and those seem to have been chosen by sticking pins in the catalogue at random. World War I recruiting poster in Welsh, anyone?

Independence calls for the bravest man, apparently.

Or then this,

which has been illustrated in preference to a Dame Laura Knight poster for “War Pictures by British Artists. National Gallery Trafalgar Square”. Apparently it’s an image of a barrage balloon, but I can’t find it anywhere and would love to have seen it.

One or two classics have been illustrated.

Along with this one, which I’ve never seen before but rather like.

It would have been nice to have known the artist, or whatever other information is in that small print, but of course they’re not telling.

Plenty more other gems are almost certainly lurking in the catalogue, but I simply don’t have the whole day or more that it would take me to try and track down every single poster they mention. This one is definitely on offer.

As are a whole heap of fuel economy Bateman posters (at least eleven, spread seemingly at random among six different lots), along with a Fougasse on the same theme.

There are plenty of other fuel economy posters in there too; not all, however, are classics.

There are also two more lots of the Beverley Pick ATS recruiting posters which were pointed out to me in the last auction.

I’d like to be able to tell you what those fetched in the last sale, but, frustratingly, the Wallis and Wallis website doesn’t even have results on it so I can’t.

I’ll post about Pick again one of these days, as I’ve dug out more of his/her war posters, and they’re all good. And if anyone has any more information about their work in the meantime, I’d love to know.