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Lucky Dip

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As promised last week, it’s random image day – a whole heap of posters that I have discovered along the way but not managed to use in a post. All sizes, all shapes, every one a great piece of design.

Here’s a Mount/Evans for starters – it’s from the V&A collection and I’ve never seen it anywhere else.

It comes from their prints website (that is prints that they sell you, rather than the Prints and Drawings Department), which tells me it comes from 1960. One day I will rant about the impossibility of getting any kind of fix on what the V&A actually holds, but even describing what it does and doesn’t do is such a daunting task that it may take me a while.

This Reginald Mount (the third of a set which were up on eBay a while back) also comes from there.

And I can’t tell you a single thing about this (which, again, I’ve never seen before) because their system is so byzantine and strange that I now can’t find it again. But, is good.

Not only Reginald Mount, but Hans Unger would also like you to Keep Britain Tidy, although he is rather more anguished about it.

And yes, that is a photograph of a poster pinned to a piece of hessian. You’ve got to love the Design Council Slide Collection. As well as the seventies.

They also produced this pair of Eckersleys, which are a bit different to most of his work.

Not sure about the dates for these, the Design Council puts the first one at 1980, but it looks earlier than that, about the same period as the brochure cover. I’m also taking their dating with a pinch of salt, as they estimate the second one to be c1959-65 – despite the large black 1961 in the top right corner.

Meanwhile, back at the GPO, there are some very strange posters. This one, by Beaumont, for example.

Apparently this is from 1957, although it looks earlier to me. He was clearly saner in 1950 when he did this for them.

And finally, a random bit of early 60s kitch. They must have really loved that diving board at Weston Super Mare, I’ve seen it on so many posters.

Good, now I can tidy them all away. Only to start laying down some more, of course.

If you have to ask, you can’t afford it

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Often, I end up writing about posters on here that I, for one, can’t afford. Like the Royston Cooper Hastings that I mentioned last week, which is fantastic, but at £1000 a pop, I’m probably never going to own it. I’ve always rather fancied this 1951 Abram Games design too.

But as it was last sighted going for £850 at Morphets, it’s unlikely to be making an appearance on our walls any time soon.

Here, however, is something which puts all of that into perspective. Something so expensive that they don’t even dare tell you the price.

Perhaps I’d better let them describe it.

This outstanding collection of original vintage posters includes many Countries, all Periods, all Topics, all Styles, and most Artists. For major poster designers represented, see the ARTISTS page. This is an ensemble of finest Graphic Designs, covering Graphic History since its beginnings. It is a unique investment opportunity for Museums, Universities, Corporations or Private to establish or complete a significant collection.

(And I’m sorry, but I can’t help hearing that paragraph spoken by a snappily-dressed Russian meercat. Simples.)

What they mean is 25,ooo posters. Although only (only!) 17,000 different ones if you discount the duplicates. How would you even know which were duplicates if you had that many posters? I forget what posters we own, and ours all fit under the spare bed.

They look like this.

And this.

And so on and so on.

If you want to see the full extent of what you’d get for your un-named price, they have their own website here.

They’re the collection of Eric Kellenberger, a Swiss architect who started collecting posters in the late 1960s as a cost-effective way of providing art for his clients’ walls. (I seem to remember my own excuse for beginning to buy posters being some similar thing about value for money art; a rationalisation that is blown out of the water by the sheer number of posters that we now own but don’t display.)

Apart from being rather overwhelmed by its sheer size, I don’t have a lot to say about this, mainly because it’s almost entirely foreign. So much so that the BOAC poster above (c1955) is the only British one I could confidently identify. There is also a Jersey one, which I can’t find elsewhere, and another with a Kangaroo urging me to Buy Australian Sultanas, which I can live without. Both the dog and the kangaroo look a bit threatening, if you ask me.

The artist list also mentions Zero, but I can’t see any images.

But it’s probably a good job it’s all foreign, because I doubt I could afford to buy one of these, never mind twenty-five thousand. Anyone else up for it?

Meanwhile elsewhere on the web, a classic pre-war railway poster is up for auction on eBay.

It falls into the category of picture of a train where they want you to see its workings, which makes it quite valuable, if not generally my cup of tea. But its auction history tells a little story about perceived value and eBay.

Firstly the seller, posterisland, put it on for Best Offer, with a guide price of £2,250. Funnily enough, no one bought it.

They probably thought that they were being reasonable, as the poster did go for £2,200 at Morphets (and £1,900, and £1,800; he had three…). But that was for near-perfect nick; this one is a bit battered. And it’s on eBay.

Then they tried again, as an auction with a £99.99 start price, but also a £1,750 Buy It Now. Then someone must have told him something because he took it off again twenty minutes later.

Now it is up for auction again, with a start price of £99.99, no scary Buy It Now price, and it has three bids. And I suspect it will go quite a bit higher by the time it finishes today. Although possibly not quite as high as the seller would like. We shall see.

If you do bid and are disappointed, though, I can offer some consolation.

The chance to do it in cross stitch. Kits available online. There is nothing I can add to that.

A football, a train and a pint of milk.

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I’ve been sent a couple of nice things recently by readers. (Only via email though. No real bribery has yet been attempted but please do feel free, posters particularly welcome.)

Anna pointed out that there was another Lewitt-Him children’s book out there, which she knew of as her mother had kept it from her own childhood. It’s The Football’s Revolt,

and it looks to be as lovely as the others.

There are a few more photos on the Flickr set if you like these. This is certainly the only way I’ll be looking at it, as prices on Abebooks start at £67 and from there only go up. It was published in 1944 under wartime restrictions, so I’m guessing there were never that many copies in the first place, hence the premium.

Patrick Tilley also got in touch after we featured some of his designs for AP. He’ll be the subject of a post or three in due course, but in the meantime, a reminder of what lovely stuff he was producing.

The agency (Mather & Crowther..?) removed my name from the border. Possibly because the slogan was theirs not mine.
They just asked for some coloured cut-out lettering and I obliged.

Amusingly, you can see the poster hard at work on a hoarding (centre, behind the blue Volkswagen van) in this still from The Ipcress File.

It’s the scene where Carswell is shot in his car, and if you want to know more (including Google Earth co-ordinates), it’s all here.

Paul Rennie, meanwhile has sent over the cover of a railway magazine. Fortunately this is better than it sounds.

It’s not a poster, it’s quite early and it’s by Victor Reinganum who was more of an illustrator than a poster designer, but it’s rather lovely so I’ve decided to show it anyway. Reinganum did design one poster for London Underground too, in 1950

so there you go.

Mr Rennie has also, very kindly, sent over a proof of his new poster book. But as this is both very big and very comprehensive (as well as being packed with lovely posters) I may take a while to digest it. But I will. In the meantime, here are a few pretty pictures for your entertainment.

Lewitt-Him, Post Early for GPO, 1941

God Save our Queen (original artwork), Barnett Freedman, 1953, 19 x 39″, Shell Mex & BP.

Boat Races, Anne Hickmott, 1959, panel poster, 10 x 12″, London Transport.

This good design, it’s just not British

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I haven’t finished with the Artist Partners AP2 brochure/catalogue/thingy, not yet. There’s a large chunk of its content that I’ve been ignoring so far, and that’s the sheer number of foreign designers who are represented in the book. Designers like Savignac, for example.

Or Andre Francois.

Now in itself, that’s perhaps not so surprising – it’s good for Artist Partners and good for the designers. But it leads to a couple of interesting thoughts. The first is that these renowned designers are clearly working for UK agencies and firms as well as in their own country, which I didn’t know. These two images above aren’t the only examples, the book contains plenty more in black and white.

Here’s Francois working for Mazda, Gillette and Taylor Walkers Ale.

Then Jean Colin for WH Smith and Nestle, as well as in French.

I haven’t turned up any examples of these designs anywhere else, even though all three artists are highly collectable, which once again shows how much our view of these graphics is based on the very partial sample of what has survived.

On top of this, it is also surprising just how many foreign designers there are in AP2. On top of those who mainly lived and worked abroad, (and the AP book also includes Herbert Leupin, Donald Brun and Saul Bass), several more of those represented are emigres who came over as a result of the war – designers like Hans Unger and George Him.

There’s also Heinz Kurth, who gets a double-page spread in the book and may well belong in this category too.

He also did the really excellent photography illustration that I’ve illustrated before (currently pinging its way round the web thanks to Martin Klasch)

But I can’t seem to find out anything more about his story and whether he actually worked in Britain or not – I’m guessing he did from the AP images, which are pretty much all British. He did also do this.

which does rather suggest he was based in the UK, and which you could buy if you wanted for just £100, a bit of a bargain if you ask me.

Which leads me to a further, bigger conclusion, about just how much modernism really was a foreign import in Britain. But that’s another thought for another post, not least because there are a few books I need to read before I stick my opinions on the line. If you’ve got anything to say on this, please do let me know.

Rather forgeta-bull

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A curiosity today. This.

It’s a 1955 childrens book by Jan Lewitt, one half of the brilliant Lewitt-Him graphic design partnership.

It’s not, I have to say, a great book, but makes it in here mostly because it is clearly a spin-off from one of my favourite posters, a Lewitt-Him design from 1943.

I’m rather tickled by the fact that Jan Lewitt liked the idea so much that ten years later he decided to give the image an entire backstory, rather like an author being forced to write a sequel because he’s created characters who just won’t leave him alone.

It’s just a shame that the plot (which involves far away islands, mandolin trees and a bull called Yorick) isn’t a bit more gripping.

Although the illustrations are rather wonderful, in a grown-up kind of way.

Should you fancy your own copy, it’s pretty widely available on the second hand book web, at prices ranging from £10 – £100. You choose.

Two other incidental facts while I am here. Lewitt-Him also did a couple of other children’s books as a partnership. One is The Little Red Train, written by Diana Ross (not that one, I don’t think)

which you can find here (via Martin Klasch). Both the story and illustrations are better if you ask me,

to the extent that I might consider reading it to a real life small child.

There’s also Locomotive, The Turnip and The Birds’ Broadcast, which I’ve never seen but a very nice man has posted the complete set of images on Flickr, so you can take a view for yourself. My view is that it looks like the most delightful of the lot. It is, however, as rare as hen’s teeth and proportionately expensive, so I may never get to find out.

And finally, the Vegetabull poster wasn’t the only poster that Lewitt-Him did in this style. I wanted to post one of the others simply because I never see it anywhere else. So here it is.

Happy Easter

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