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We’re back from France.  There were no posters there that we could see, but we did find this roundabout.

I think Barbara Jones would have liked its exuberance.  We did.

Here, the left hand cat has run away with a piece of meat (at least I think that’s what it is meant to be, even though it looks more like a strawberry).

You can find them all right next to the Roman triumphal arch in Saintes; I think Barbara Jones would have appreciated that juxtaposition as well.

Still on holiday, I’m afraid.  Our normal service will return next week.

This is what we will be doing later on today.

I will be slightly surprised if  Brittany Ferries can manage to be as glamorous as this, but I can only hope.  See you on our return.

This poster would be worthy of your attention for its headline alone, because Hamster Joy is indeed how it is being advertised on eBay.

I think the caption really means something like saving is fun, but Hamster Joy is much more pleasing.  If that tickles your fancy, you will also be pleased to know that it comes “without linen on backside’. Although you may be less chuffed to discover that they want about £160 for it.

But I’m not just posting it for the pleasures of the mangled translation. This poster is just the tip of an iceberg, an iceberg so huge that it is forcing me to go off our usual paths and into the strange territory of the European poster.  In fact Hamster Joy is just one of almost 1,500 posters being sold out of Switzerland by PosterConnection.  Want to see a few more?

Donald Brun, 1956, £266

Celestine Piatti, 1960, £244

H.+L.Gantenbein, 1948, £1,152

They’re all being sold as Buy It Now, in dollars, hence the slightly odd pricing.  The listings suggest that they will accept Best Offers too; a few seem to have been sold this way, although our offer on this Karo – the only British poster in there – was rejected.  But then it was a bit cheeky.

Karo, 1960, £133

I’m guessing that’s a coach poster – any thoughts, anyone?

What will be obvious already is that this an incredible set of posters being sold here.  I do know of a couple of huge collections in Switzerland, one of which has been up for sale as a whole for some time (details here in case you have a yen for Swiss posters and a ton of cash to dispose of).  But the illustrations of that one seem earlier, and I can’t match up a single image between them – this is a much more contemporary and modernist collection.

Anonymous,1960, £139

Which then suggests that it’s the other big Swiss poster collection (who have bought some things from us in the past) just disposing, as we did, of some unwanted flotsam and jetsam.  In which case I’d very much like to see what they’re keeping.

What’s on sale covers pretty much every poster subject you can imagine, so what I post on here can never be more than a partial survey.  Please do go and look for yourself, because it’s an education for the eye.  For example, there are several Brussels Expo posters that I haven’t seen before.

Villemot, 1958, £72

Jacques Riches, 1958, £218

In fact the collection as a whole is quite strong on posters for Expos and trade fairs in general.

H Simon, 1950, £388

Anonymous, 1955, £466

Buelow, 1965, £175

But looking at the collection also makes me consider some of the differences between European and British posters at this time.  To start with, Johnny Foreigner is much better at doing animals than we were (the Gilroy Guinness ads being perhaps an honourable exception).  Some of these, like Donald Brun’s Zwicky cat, are classics.

Donald Brun, 1946, £533

But there are plenty more where that came from.

Pierre Bataillard, 1947, £278

Donald Brun, 1958, £339

Piatti, 1958, £72

On a more serious note, one thing that I do envy about European posters is that so much more of their commercial work has survived.  Our walls are rather dominated by railway and London Transport , and I would  love to have some posters for food and other household stuffs up there too.  But tbey just don’t survive in the UK.  If someone can explain to me why they do survive in Europe (could you write to Zwicky or Knorr and ask for a poster?), I would, genuinely like to know.

Piatti, 1957, £133

Anonymous, 1940, £181

Given that our household would grind to a halt without coffee, I’d particularly like something along these lines.

H.R.Erdmann, 1960, £115

Fritz Bühler, 1958, £181

On a slightly different tack, these two posters are a delight simply because they remind me of the days when the telephone was like a talking internet.  Well nearly.  These are for news and weather, but Mr Crownfolio can remember dialing up to hear the chart rundown back in the day.

Piatti, 1967, £212

René Gilsi, 1950, £121

There are so many posters, and so many great ones there, that I could go on almost indefinitely.  But I won’t; instead just two final observations.

The first is that an exhibition about House Cats sounds like a very good idea, and I would like to see one please.

C.Kuhn, 1994, £115

The second is that, as the observant amongst you may have noticed, I really like the work of Celestine Piatti a great deal.  I kept finding myself pulling them out from the listings without, most of the time, realising they were by him.  Really, they are excellent.

Piatti, 1955, £175

Piatti, 1960, £181

Furthermore, he must be a great man, because he has written a book about Happy Owls.  It’s a good job that he’s not British, and so outside our self-imposed guidelines, otherwise I think a very expensive spending spree would be coming on.

Mr Crownfolio brought this to my attention with the description ‘sense of proportion failure’ and he’s not far wrong there.

This delectable image from the late 1970s is on offer to you for the grand sum of three hundred pounds.  Yes, £300.  And that’s the starting bid, not even a Buy It Now.  I was going to say that I’m lost for words, but I’m not, I have found them.  Not all railway posters are worth a lot of money. Especially not this one.

But in trying to find out who was responsible (for the poster, not the eBay listing), I did come across a couple of rather fine Chessington items.  They’re both by Bromfield, the first from 1962, the second two years later.

And if you go fiurther back, to somewhere in the late 1930s, there is this, by Burley.

If you like it, one of the same series, featuring an elephant this time, is up for sale from Dodo Posters.  And for £375.

But ifor a complete overview of how railway poster design went downhill from these designs to the 1970s, as Chessington changed from a Zoo and Circus to a World of Adventures, then this is the page for you.

The above is just a short excerpt; sadly, there is a lot more where they came from.  I dare you to take a look.

Finally, though, I have to say I’m grateful to the eBay seller in the end.  The poster is part of a whole trove of Chessington memorabilia, including this programme.

Which is so good – and so much cheaper – that we bought it.  When it arrives I may be able to tell you who the graphic designer is; then again I may not.  Why didn’t the posters look like this then?

Just a quick post today, between the merry whirl of activities that is the Easter holidays, to point you at a poster auction over in the States at PosterConnection.

There isn’t a huge amount of British interest, but what there is covers a lot of rather high-quality ground.  So there’s a Henrion and a Lewitt-Him for starters.

FHK Henrion, 1947, “suggested bid” $240

Lewitt-Him, 1948, $240

Along with this BOAC Eckersley, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Tom Eckersley, 1947, $460

It’s interesting seeing Eckersley doing his own version of someone else’s design, in this case Theyre Lee Elliott‘s Speedbird logo. The result is still a classic, but it doesn’t quite warm my heart enough to make me want it, for some reason.

Unlike this Zero design for London Transport, which I do rather covet, probably more than any other poster in this auction.

Zero, 1947, $200

But in case those aren’t quite what you’re looking for, they’ve also got a Shell poster,

John Armstrong, 1932, $750

and some classic railways posters from both before and after the war,

Schabelsky, 1935, $500

Maddox 1958, $280

as well as a delightful piece of 1950s kitschery – once again for Norfok.  Is there something in the air over there?

Anon, 1958, $170

All of which makes a pretty good whirlwind tour in a very few posters.  And then there is also this – a chance to see Britain through the eyes of our fellow Europeans.

Miessen, 1956, $220

Although I’m not sure that Dover was ever that alluring, not even in 1956.

Next time on Quad Royal, more auctions, as the new Christies catalogue has just popped through the letterbox.  But don’t get your hopes up too high, it’s definitely not as exciting as last time…