auctions Archives - Page 4 of 19

Auctions, var

auctions

The Great Northern Railwayana auction is back with us again next weekend, once again in my old stomping ground of Poynton. Sadly, the posters aren’t quite as exciting as they were last time, but there are still a few that catch my attention, like some classically styled seaside posters.

I like both the woman fighting the dog and the oh, by the way we’ve got a ruin down in the corner. So full marks for that.

This one gets points because we go to Weymouth (although the beach is never as curiously empty around us) which does also allow me to say that the bay actually looks nothing like that really. But it also wins because it’s once again proving my argument that railway posters for seaside holidays are predominantly aimed at women. I mean, look at he: she’s got to go and have a swim all by herself while he looks after the toddler. And in fact she’s been away for so long that he’s turned the colour of a sideboard. The colours make my eyes hurt generally with that one, they’ve been turned up too high.

Shall we look at something more restful instead?

I sort of like it, but to be honest there isn’t a whole heap of stuff that tickles my fancy this time around.

I can also offer you this though.

Admittedly, it’s not the most ground breaking image in the world, but it is by Hugh Casson, which has to count for something. Architectural detail, probably.

And that is about your lot. There are some Terence Cuneos on offer as well. but I’ve run out of ways to express my lack of interest in engineering detail. I’m sure they will go to good homes.

Meanwhile, Van Sabben have an auction the week after, and boy have they been busy. But on my first trawl through the 962 posters on offer (yes you did read that right) I couldn’t see a single British item. My second go did turn up one or two, but even then, they are not that exciting. I think my personal favourite is this.

William Henry, 1949, est. €220-450

In the end, that is what you want from an airline, isn’t it.

Running it a close second is this, mainly because I can hear the words being read in those tight clipped tones from the newsreels.

Anonymous, Crawfords, est. €70-150

I would quibble with them about the date though, as I don’t think many manufacturers were printing posters in 1940, and the clothes and hair also look earlier. But I am prepared to be wrong on that.

Lastly, this poster for P&O is out of my usual sphere being both early and for cruising, but it is rather good.

Michael Horan, 1930, est. €1,500-3,000

I’ve never seen it before, but a cursory search reveals that Horan also did this in 1936, which I now need very badly.

Apart from these, we are mostly looking at the usual suspects, of which this Lewitt Him is just one example.

Lewitt Him, 1950, est €150-300

More interesting, and also by Lewitt Him, is this poster for Israel.

Lewitt-Him, 1950, est. €80-160

Which sits alongside this Abram Games on similar lines.

Abram Games, 1950, est. €450-650

I’ve never seen either of these before, and they are both rather good.

To find these, I have of course had to wade through 950 or so other, foreign posters. My compensation was a squirrel trying to sell me milk chocolate.

Karel Suyling, 1955, est. €80-160

As they do.

Improve each shining hour

auctions

Right, it’s back to the auction marathon here, and coming up next is the GWRA on 17th May.

As is the case with pretty much all the railwayana auctions these days, there are increasing number of posters. Of which the best, in my opinion, is this one.

But then we’ve already got one, so I would say that, wouldn’t I. And apologies for the intermittent wonkiness, it’s them not me.

Most interesting poster award goes to this one, by A R Thomson from 1931.

I’ve written about this series before, and, as promised in that post, have been doing some more research on both Thomson and the posters. With the result that I know about a whole slew of strange matters including the development of cognition in deaf people and Eric Gill’s ride on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman. I will knit them all into a proper blog post one day, I promise. And in the meantime, if anyone can tell me why that quote is being used on the poster, other than just because they can, I will be very grateful.

Finally, in the perennial category of poster that I quite like without there being any obvious reason, this jolly little number.

Perhaps it’s because that’s where I’m going on holiday this year and I’m already looking forward to it.

Other than that, all forms of poster life are out there and waiting for your bid. There are the classics, nicely mounted on linen.

There are the pretty pictures of landscape, in this case by one Hesketh Hubbard, who is new to me.

It turns out that he’s more of an artist than a poster designer, and also has a life drawing society founded in his name. So now we know.

Kitsch is also represented by the yard.

Along with Cuneos, tram posters and much much more. Oh, and this.

About which I have no comment at all.

I managed to omit the Great Central Railwayana Auction a couple of weeks ago. Again, there were a lot of posters, most of which went for pretty much the kind of prices you’d expect. And also the kind of prices that GCR would expect because, the heavens be praised, they have started putting estimates on their catalogues. So I can tell you that this Amstutz sold for £210 when it had an estimate of £150-200.

But there were also some surprises out there. Perhaps everyone else apart from me thinks that a Tom Purvis is now worth £1800, but even the estimate was only £900-1,200.

Less plausibly, this went for £420 (set. £150-300)

I can only imagine some kind of bidding war between two people from Teignmouth to create that price.

I’m also somewhat surprised that this poster went for £620 because, well, it doesn’t have much picture on it really, does it?

I suppose that the small bit that does exist is by Frank Mason, but even so.

One of my cherished theories – that artwork for posters never goes for that much in the end – was blown out of the water by this particular lot.

By Ward, it is the original watercolour and sized at just 20″ x 13″; nonetheless it went for a whopping £1500.

More modern lots were rather less predictable. This very fine London Transport poster by Peter Robeson sold well over estimate at £270. Which is a considerable sum for this kind of poster.

A statement you may translate as, we like to buy these kinds of poster only now it’s looking like we can’t afford them any more.

While on the other hand, we really should have gone for this truly great Stevens, a steal at £110.

And from all of that I can offer you no conclusions at all, except that posters cost money and getting estimates on railwayana auctions makes me rather happier than it probably ought to.

More auctions soon, and, if you are very unlucky, a discussion of birth rates in the 1920s and 30s with reference to the work of Tom Purvis.

Mammoth sale

auctions

Right, in my attempt to keep on top of things, a quick scamper through the forthcoming Swann Galleries auction. Which is tomorrow, so you’d better be quick if you actually want to buy any of them. Me, I’m just window-shopping, especially at these prices.

All the prices are high, but then that’s a posh auction in America for you, but the one I slightly take exception to is this.

McKnight Kauffer, 1924, est. $1,500 – 2000

But that’s only because we sold one at the last Onslows sale, and it went for £230, which seemed quite reasonable at the time. And it was backed on linen too.

Kauffer is also represented by this rather magnificent Art Deco mammoth (now there’s a phrase I never thought I’d have recourse to).

McKnight Kauffer, 1924, est. $2,000 – 3,000

There are a few other London Transport posters in there, like this rather splendid Zero.

Zero, 1935, est $800 – 1,200

Although I do end up wondering whether I’d ever put that up on the wall. Maybe if I were a museum.

There is this rather lovely pair of Barnett Freedmans too.

Barnett Freedman, 1936, est. $700 – 1,000 the pair

Of more interest to me are these two Orient line posters, mainly because I wrote about the first one a while back.

Richard Beck, 1937, est $600 – 900

Reimann Studios and Kraber, 1937, est. $600 – 900

The second one is at least partly by Kraber, whose work I keep discovering and each time I say that I will find out more about him. I must make good on this promise one of these days, because every single design I come across by him is great. This is no exception, and I would happily put that poster on the wall if someone would like to buy it for me.

This, being an early airline map by Moholy Nagy, ought to be interesting.

Moholy-Nagy, 1936, est. $10,000 – 15,000

But it just isn’t, is it. The price suggests that other people might not agree with me though.

And finally, as is customary with these sales where there are just a handful of British posters, a dip into the furrin. This is a Savignac rough design that I just like.

Savignac, 1951, est $3,000 – 4,000

But this is much more interesting.

Savignac, 1950s, est. $800 – 1,200

These are two designs from a set of 39 roughs, which Savignac clearly did for a British firm. Now I did know that he and Colin, amongst others, had worked over here, but evidence of it doesn’t come up often enough if you ask me.

Your goodwill eases our daily task

auctions

Right, I have got behind again (apologies) and so the next few posts are going to be mostly me catching up with the auctions. And there seem to be quite a lot to get through, too. Although I do also have some thoughts on 1930s railway posters which need an airing one of these days as well.

First up, because the auction is next weekend, is London Transport Auctions. On the plus side, they do at least, unlike most railwayman auctions, include a guide price. On the downside, the pictures in their catalogue are minute. Like this one, for example.

That, to save your eyesight, is a road and rail timetable for St Albans in 1937. I suspect that the cover design may be quite nice, but I can’t really tell.

Fortunately The Saleroom have come to our rescue, so we can actually have a look at some of the posters that are on sale. Which is a relief, because there are some nice ones in there. Let’s start with the classics (for which you can read really quite valuable posters) represented here by Anna Zinkeiesen.

Anna Zinkeiesen, 1934, est. £150-200

There’s also a design of hers for the Aldershot Tattoo, but it’s not as mice as the one above. Or this one below, come to that. which is by John Stewart Anderson.

John Stewart Anderson, 1939, est. £150-200

He did some work for Shell in the 1930s as well, in the same kind of airbrush style, but that is pretty much all I can tell you. And I don’t know anything about Charles Mozley, either, except that he designs in a style very reminiscent of Barnett Freedman crossed with a Punch cartoon.

Charles Mozley, 1939, est. £100-150

Although, when I google, it turns out that I probably should have heard of him.

Elsewhere in the classics department, there are a couple of World War Two posters.

Eric Kennington, 1944, est. £75-100

James Fitton, 1943, est. £100-150.

A James Fitton is always a joy to see, at least for me.

As is this Eckersley-Lombers, which I would say was rare, on the basis that I’ve never seen it turn up at auction before. Except that there are two of them in this very sale, each slightly different. Go figure.

Spot the difference. Both are double royal, both from 1936 and both on offer for £100-125 which, if you ask me, would be a bit of a steal. (Actually I think that quite a few of these prices are at the low end of what even a notorious cheapskate like me would be prepared to pay, so it will be interesting to see what things actually go for).

Elsewhere, there are also some lovely post-war poster which are, inevitably, a bit more up my own personal street. Cream of the crop is probably this very colourful Kensington Palace Coronation Special.

Sheila Robinson, 1953, est. £75-100

I could quite happily decorate a room in those colours. And with that poster too.

There are also a few nice later examples too, like these two by Victoria Davidson and Anthony Rossiter.

Victoria Davison, 1959, est. £75-100

Anthony Rossiter, 1964, est. £30-50

But you should probably go and have a look at the catalogue, if only because it is full of many and diverse delights apart from posters. If I spend more than a few minutes in there, I find myself wondering about bus conductors’s satchels and cap badges, about poster frames and brochures. Or why not buy a bus stop?

Yours for £100-125 if you want it. But I think I’d better end there, before I get entirely carried away. On a bus, of course.

In a field of their own

auctions, other

I really ought to be writing about the latest Great Central Railwayana catalogue, but that will have to wait for now, as my attention has been grabbed by a pair of rather fetching animals instead.

This delightful pig is being sold on eBay by the previously mentioned Postercollection.

It’s by Derrick Hass, it’s probably from the early 1960s and because it’s being sold by Postercollection it comes without linen on backside and is yours for a rather eye watering £198. Or they will apparently take an offer.

Meanwhile, I’ve never seen this somewhat bewildered sheep before, and I feel as though I should have, because it’s the work of Mount Evans.

He is included in a brand new book of public information posters from the National Archives, called Keep Britain Tidy. I have no idea whether it just contains pictures of posters or whether there is some kind of informative text too, but I probably need to get my hands on a copy to find out. Although the subtitle – and other posters from the nanny state – is almost enough to put me off. But if I manage to swallow my disquiet, I will report back in due course.

While I have your attention, there are a couple of interesting posters coming up at an auction in Nottingham on Saturday. Amongst the offerings are yet another Lander that I’ve never seen before, and which we would be bidding on were it not so a touch holed. (It’s estimated at £60-90, so may yet be worth your while)

Along with this Cornwall poster too, which we failed to get an auction, possibly Morphets, some time back and I still hanker after for its general levels of insanity.

Yours for a mere £40-60 if they’ve got their estimates right.

And finally, a question for you. Who’s doing the looking in this picture?

Seriously. The whole family is outside the window, so who’s inside looking at them? Granny? A voyeur? Or should I assume that there is a third child, some sulky teenager lurking inside with their copy of Jane Eyre? Answers on the usual electronic postcard below, please.

Worth it in the long run

auctions, Uncategorized

I am rushing in just to tell you about Great Central Railwayana. I’ve had the catalogue for ages, and been meaning to write about it for ages, and now, suddenly, the auction is this Saturday. I blame the builders.

Once again, there are a good selection of posters on offer, ten times the number that you’d find at a railwayana auction even a few years ago, but I’m finding it hard to get overly excited about them as they mostly consist of the usual suspects, like Terence Cuneo.

Terence Cuneo, 1950.

And nice pictures of landscapes from the 1950s, there are lots of those.

Gyrth Russell, 1955.

Although as seaside posters go, this one is quite special.

Henry Stringer, 1955.

While this bit of Dorset coast is an unusual departure from Alan Durman’s usual subject matter and style, but rather good with it.

And, after his star turn at the Great Northern Auction, they’ve also dug out another unusual Lander which I quite like.

R. M. Lander, 1955.

I also like this poster, although for no particular reason that I can articulate.

John Greene, 1955.

It’s green, will that do? As is this one.

S. R. Badmin, 1950.

There is another Badmin coach poster lurking in there too, which might end up being a bit of a bargain, as coach posters often are at railway auctions.

There on the other hand, it might not.

But if you want good design, this Karo has to be the best poster in the sale by a long chalk. It will be interesting to see what it goes for.

Also on my favourites list is this Kelly, which I’ve written about before.

Kelly, 1955.

Its (even better) pair was up in the Great Northern sale a couple of weeks ago.

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention it. But sadly we were outbid, quite considerably. Hey ho. Prices were generally quite high there, especially considering that it’s a brand new sale, but that’s a subject I’ll come back to next week.

But if you really want good design, the best example in the sale isn’t actually a poster. It’s this.

That’s Hans Schleger’s design work for London Transport there, from 1957, and very good it is too.