eBay Archives - Page 13 of 14

Eckersley discovered (twice)

I hadn’t meant to return to Tom Eckersley so soon, but Mr Crownfolio came across this on eBay.

“What do you think?” he said.

“I think it’s very expensive,” I said. With a starting price at £100, it certainly is, even if it is a limited edition of 500.

“Do you know what,” he said after we had stared at the screen for a few more minutes. “I think we’ve got this on the bookshelves downstairs.”

I looked blankly at him, certain that I have never seen this book before in my life. But it turns out that he’s right. Which means that we can’t have paid £100 for it as I would definitely have remembered any transaction of that sort (to put this into perspective, I could count the number of posters that we have paid more than £100 for pretty much on the fingers of one hand). Perhaps it isn’t the limited edition, we thought – but it is too, copy number 100. You may consider me surprised.

While this whole episode may have left me wondering how close I am to utter senility, the upside in terms of the blog is that I can show you some of the book – in particular a few images that don’t seem to be in the Eckersley archive. (Apologies, incidentally, for the slightly poor quality of the scans; I am terrified of damaging the spine of a book that is clearly more valuable than I thought – and I’d also say that the colour reproduction in the book isn’t as bright as it might be).

Cover for The Director, 1954

National Bus Company Poster, 1974

Imperial War Museum Poster, 1981

Apparently the image above Eckersley himself thought to be amongst his best work. I think I can actually remember seeing it displayed on the tube when I visited London, back in the day.

But the book has also made me look at a couple of other designs properly. Like this one, for an exhibition in Sweden in 1960, which is almost impossibly modern for its date.

As well as this, from 1973, which is nothing short of genius in its minimalism.

The other really useful thing about the book is that it has a slightly more detailed and personal biography of Tom Eckersley than you might find on the web. So I’m going to revive my long-lost copy typing skills and put a slightly edited version of it on here for you at some point this week. Illustrated with a few more images from the book. You’ll hardly need to buy a copy yourself.

Finally, one further benefit of all of this is that I have looked at our bookshelves properly (generally they are Mr Crownfolio’s domain) and discovered all sorts of contemporary design and poster annuals, so I will, gradually, get round to scanning and posting about them all.

We’re all going to the zoo tomorrow…

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Now I don’t normally do European posters. I know nothing about their styles or their designers, and I have no idea what anything is worth. This is mostly self-protection; rather too much of my brain is already cluttered up with images and facts about British graphics and posters, when it should be more worried about paid work and what’s for dinner, never mind adding all of Europe to the load. And anyway, if I started finding out about them, I’d discover lots of ones I liked, and then I’d have to buy them and where would it all end. Etc.

But this one has got through the defenses today, mainly because it is such a great bit of photomontage.

Who could fail to like that? I still don’t know anything about it mind you. It’s on eBay, and the listing says it’s by Studio Peso. The listing also says that it’s “fifties”. I have a slight raised eyebrow at that, but then that, given my ignorance, is probably of no consequence. So if anyone reading can tell me anything about it, please do. My mind could be broadened here.

It’s being sold by someone in Belgium who wants €95 for it. Now I think that’s quite reasonable, but please do tell me if you think otherwise. He’s also got a surprising range of other classy posters on offer. Including another one that I am almost tempted to buy.

Apart from the great colour, this is mostly because I visited the Atomium a couple of times as an impressionable teenager, at a time when it had been left to moulder gently since the 1958 expo. So the entire interior, signage and exhibitions inside were all shrines to high 50s design (and optimism about atomic power). This experience of being dipped straight back into the atomic 1950s must be one of the reasons I’m still so fond of the era now. And it is also one of the weirdest structures ever built. (Fancy travelling on an escalator along the arm of an iron crystal? The Atomium is probably the only chance you’ll get.)

But if you haven’t been converted to the world of the Belgian poster, here is something more traditional. And cheaper, even if it is in the States.

I’ve investigated this poster before, and come up with a blank, so if you know anything about it, please do say. But my main observation is that it’s a single sheet, and so impossibly big which, along with the damage at the bottom, will probably keep its value down. Personally, my money’s on the seal, or it would be if I dared dip my toe into European waters.

Fun and Games

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Nice and simple today. A high quality poster, in good condition, on sale on eBay.

Here it is, not occluded by the frame as it is in their picture.

It’s a very high quality item* to come up on eBay, and so I’m guessing that the price will end up being rather more than its current £3.45 when it ends on Sunday. Either that or someone’s about to get the bargain of the century. Watch that space.

*People probably do hold back from buying on eBay, especially when something looks as good as this does, fearing that it will be a reprint or a fake. It’s a fair point, especially considering how many modern prints. fridge magnets and postcards come up every time you search. But eBay are getting stricter these days, and the dealers are getting wise to this. So any reprint or new poster will, generally say so somewhere in the listing, even if the print is tiny.

With something like this, expressly described as ‘vintage’ and ‘original’ in the listing, if it didn’t turn out to be the real deal, and you’d paid by Paypal, I think your case for getting a refund would be pretty watertight.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t scammers, and that it’s safe to buy anything which looks half-way plausible. Just that if I had the slightest thought this was going to go for under £150, I’d have a go myself, because it smells right enough to me. But it won’t. Anyone for a sweepstake on final value here?

And also, for those on a tighter budget, a poster that I’ve never seen before, but rather like despite myself:

It’s an RAF poster, and I can’t find it anywhere else, other than on eBay here for just 99p as it stands today. Something for every pocket, then.

On the menu today

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Now look what you’ve made me go and do. This, to start with.

And this.

All I did was write about Daphne Padden, and then post images of a few menus that Dorrit Dekk had designed for P&O. The next thing I knew, MrCrownfolio had pressed a few buttons on eBay, and these popped through the letterbox a few days later.

Both are from the same August 1958 cruise of the S.S. Chusan, and the food and entertainments listed are almost as evocative as the design. Anyone for Dancing to Relayed Music, or Housie Housie in the Lounge? Or how about some Consomée Tosca, or Sweetbreads Godard? So they are wonderful things, and a bit of a bargain at just £4.99 each.

But at the same time, I am utterly appalled. We can’t start collecting anything else, who knows where it will end up? In a house stacked with piles of old leaflets, tickets and newspapers and no room for us, probably. We are both natural collectors, and until now I’ve been feeling slightly smug about managing to restrict ourselves to just posters, which are at least either on the wall or not taking up much space. And now this. Ephemera. Help.

If I’m entirely honest, it isn’t the first one either. A while ago, MrCrownfolio bought this.

It’s a Tom Eckersley menu, from the Royal Designers for Industry Dinner in 1985. We’re doomed, there’s no escape. But we will go down in great style, eating Noisettes of Lamb Shrewsbury and Caramel and Orange Salambos. Anyone care to join us?

Sitting on the dock of the eBay

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End of the week already, and so time for a workmanlike round up of what’s floated to the surface on eBay recently.

Exhibit A is this Littlehampton poster from the States, which is a bit battered but not beyond the work of man to restore (for something which is, see below). Following on from yesterday’s thoughts, I wonder how it got to the States, and how many Americans holidayed in Littlehampton rather than the Hamptons as a result?

It’s by Studio 7 (whose work has recently started to cross my radar, does anyone know anything about them?) and dates from 1960 says the National Railway Museum. Here’s their copy looking quite nice.

And it’s filed in America under Transportation Collectables/British Airways, so might not get that much notice, should you be hoping for a bargain.

Next, a 1960s/1970s London Transport poster, which is not bad, although would be better for not being the 1973 reprint with added text.

I can’t better the eBay description:

This is an original 1973 copy of the famous poster by well-known industrial photographer Dr Heinz Zinram. First issued in 1965 and then re-issued in 1973 with the added slogan ” First published 8 years ago; still true today”, it shows three versions of a street scene; the first full of cars, then the people from those cars on the street and, finally, one Routemaster bus which has soaked up all 69 people.

Its message would do as well today as in 1965 and 1973. So perhaps posters don’t work that well after all.

And finally, proving that a) everything which has a named designer is not necessarily gold and b) people will try to sell absolutely anything on eBay, a Daphne Padden poster. Or at least some of one.

Now Daphne Padden is an under-rated designer, but that poster is not typical of her normally much less traditional style:

Unlike the BEA one, this is wonderful stuff, and Padden deserves more appreciation than she currently gets. If you want to see more of her graphic style, there’s a good collection of her work on Flickr and not really anywhere else. A set (quite possibly this set) came up on eBay a couple of years ago, and the more I look at these, the more I wish we’d bought at least one of them. Especially the one above with the cat. Ah well, next time.

Keep Ebay Tidy

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Seeing as I was talking about Mount/Evans yesterday, here are a couple of Keep Britain Tidy posters which I believe are their work, or at least that of Reginald Mount. He definitely designed this one, anyway.

And this one is clearly a relation.

They’ve both just gone on eBay, for £34 and £38 respectively, very reasonable for a nice pair of 30″ x 20″ Double Crowns.

I’ll post properly about Mount/Evans another day. Although I don’t know a great deal about them (they worked for the Ministry of Information together in the war and then set up their own studio afterwards is about the long and the short of it), I can lay my hands on quite a lot of examples of the good stuff they did. And if anyone can tell me any more about their careers in the meantime, that would be great.

And of course the Quad Royal Twitter logo is a Mount/Evans design.

This particular poster was designed for government offices in 1960, but is another image that has gone viral across the web because it was included in the Cold War Modern exhibition at the V&A in 2008-9. But still, a useful motto for modern life, I think.