Posts - Page 56 of 96

Buy, Buy, Sell, Buy

auctions, eBay

There are a lot of posters about at the moment; it’s only Monday morning and I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Not only have there just been the Christies and Onslows sales, but there’s also quite a bit coming up on eBay too. I’d like to sum it up in some kind of executive summary of the market at the moment, but however hard I try, this eludes me. So I’m afraid you’ll just have to bear with me as we sift through the evidence.

One feeling I have is that prices, and more importantly expected prices, are going up. Take these eBay items, for example. There’s a signed, recent, Tom Eckersley poster for £295, which has to be more than even a gallery would charge for it.

In an interesting take on eBay selling strategies, this was previously on offer for a £175 Buy It Now, but when it failed to sell, they relisted it and upped the price.

Even more excitable is the seller of this 1935 GPO Schools poster by John Armstrong, for sale for a rather steep $2,950 Buy It Now.

He is also accepting Best Offers, as he explains in rather breathless red text on his listing.

The highest offer of the 3 that I have received is $ 2,155 I will let it go to the next offer of $ 2,200.

While I know that this is a classic poster reproduced in all sorts of texts, I don’t actually like it very much and so I am able to resist this offer, or indeed pretty much any kind of offer which didn’t involve giving it to me for free.

These Shell posters, even though they are a full set of the highly-desirable Trees, by the highly-desirable SR Badmin, are surely up at the top end of the value range too at £350.

And I say this with some confidence, given that we have just got four of the Roads of Britain in this series for the grand sum of £15, including (I have said this before, and I will say it again) my favourite Shell educational poster ever, the Ridgeway by David Gentleman.

This coach poster, too, is probably also overpriced at £75 – although it’s very fashionably retro and so probably would go for much more than its £75 asking price in the right gallery.

Expensive doesn’t just apply to posters, either. This lovely little booklet with illustrations by Barbara Jones has a starting price of £90.

I begrudge this price a bit less though; it’s a rare book, published in just after the war and on that very contemporary subject of good design in the home. Having said all that, you can also find it online for just £60, so maybe it is a bit over-priced too.

The Christies auction didn’t come cheap either. These two posters were the stars of the show, both dramatically exceeding their estimates.

The Alexeieff above went for £34,850 (est. £15-20,000) while the McKnight Kauffer Underground poster sold for £27,500 (est. £8-12,000).

The Kauffer poster is particularly interesting, because a copy also turned up in the Swann Galleries auction a few weeks before, where it went for £20,580, so the price wasn’t just a flash in the pan (or even a flash from the fist).

As for the Christies’ auction as a whole, my initial reaction was that the prices seemed steep; but when I took a closer look, most sales were within the range of the estimates. What this means, I don’t know (and would love to have anyone else’s thoughts on the matter). My guess would be that some posters are getting more expensive, and that Christies are now, with their minimum lot policies, concentrating on these. There may also be psychology involved, though, too; if there’s nothing priced at £150 or even £250 in an auction, does it make the high prices seem more reasonable? To some people at least, if not me.

But fear not bargain hunters, because there are still cheap posters on eBay, even cheap underground posters. These ducks, for example, are starting at just £29.99, and are linen backed to boot.

They’re by Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly and date from 1948, while this 1923 MacDonald Gill London Transport map of Barrie’s Kensington Gardens is even cheaper at £25, although it hasn’t reached its reserve at that price, so may not be as cheap as it first appears.

Elsewhere – in the U.S. to be precise – this 1947 London Transport Central Line extension poster by Hans Schleger/Zero is perhaps better described as reasonable at £148 rather than cheap. But it is wonderful enough to justify the price.

Although if you do want a cheap Zero poster, that’s on offer as well; this British Railways museum poster from the early 1960s is a bit more crumpled, but then it is on with a starting price of only £2.99.

If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, perhaps you might like this Daphne Padden Post Office Savings Bank poster – one of my favourites – currently still at its starting price of £10.

Once again, eBay also offers me the opportunity of pointing out how badly designed most National Savings posters are. This is also a savings poster, and it has an owl on too, but that’s all it has in common with the one above.

It, however is priced at £49.99. I have nothing more to say on the matter.

All that remains is the Onslows sale, which seemed to be neither cheap nor expensive, so I’d be interested in hearing anyone else’s thoughts, or indeed about any bargains you may have bought. But it is worth remembering that they do take offers on unsold lots (until 18th June) so a second look at the online catalogue might prove worth your while.

Artwork

designers

Well my trip was a definite success, you’ll be pleased to hear. The mission was a trip to a solicitors’ office in the Home Counties in order to sift through some of the last remaning pieces from Daphne Padden’s estate. And it was worth the journey up the A303, as I have come back with a whole carrier bag full of goodies. From which there definitely is a very interesting story to tell, when I get the time to sift through it all properly. In the meantime, some original artwork for your Friday delight.

The Torbay Express apparently still runs, but I bet it doesn’t have a menu as nice as this these days.

This greetings telegram is wonderful in its detail.

And also came with its own matching envelope.

As far as I can tell, this was never used. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but there is a small and good book about Greetings Telegrams by Ruth Artmonsky, which has a full list of all the commissioned designs, and there is nothing by Daphne Padden there. I wonder why this was done in such detail then?

Finally, a small early sketch…

That fisherman is clearly a close cousin of this pair, with their black cat and pipes.

All of which is simply a taster, as there will be plenty more gems to come from the bag next week too.

Hurrah

posters

I’m not really here today because I’m off on a mission. But here’s something in the meantime.

It’s a little 10″ x 15″ GPO poster, by Daphne Padden, of course.

I’m hoping it’s going to be appropriate, because if all goes well today, I shall be returning with a further heap of Padden posters in the boot. In which case we will be celebrating with black cats and champagne. And pictures on here of course.

Cigarettes, Germs and Paper

designers

The Reginald Mount posters coming up for sale at Van Sabben, which I blogged about last week, have made me realise that I’ve never properly written about his work, in particular the posters he produced as Mount/Evans along with Eileen Evans. This is particularly surprising because not only was the first poster ever to appear on Quad Royal a Mount/Evans production, but it’s one of several we own. This one hangs above Mr Crownfolio’s desk as a perpetual warning.

Don't Brag about your job Mount Evans poster for COI 1964
That we have so many is partly a matter of chance; what I think was the residue of the Mount/Evans studio, or at least a fair collection of their duplicates, was being sold through Onslows just as we started collecting posters. So we bought some of them. But it’s also because they, and he, produced some great work.

Reginald Mount only really hoves into view in 1939, when he was taken on by the Ministry of Information as one of only a very small number of in-house designers. Before that it seems that he worked for advertising agencies such as Lintas and so probably never got to sign anything he did. Eileen Evans joined him there as a filing clerk, until her own design skills were noticed, and from then she and Mount worked together for more than thirty years. Two of the posters she designed are below (from the VADS/IWM collection).

After the war, both Mount and Evans stayed on when the MoI became the Central Office of Information. Dorrit Dekk remembers working with both of them in the late 1940s.

The studio existed – Reggie Mount had been there right through the war and Eileen Evans – Reggie was senior designer and Eileen was his second in charge – I mean his right hand helper […] but Reggie taught me everything to make me into a designer.

My guess would be that this arrangement continued for some time into the 1950s, because plenty of posters exist from the early to mid 1950s just signed Reginald Mount. These include some of the Keep Britain Tidy ones which pop up at auction every so often.

As well as some more obscure ones – this is for a Mozart Bicentenary Exhibition at the British Museum.

Then, somewhere along the line they either go part-time or freelance or both. Reginald Mount is certainly listed as one of the founding partners of Artist Partners in 1953. But much later on, they seem to have gone into formal partnership as Mount/Evans, although quite when I don’t know. The earliest poster with this credit that we have is from 1963.

(Apologies for the slightly scrappy quality of some of the photos; they were taken for reference a long time before the blog was ever thought of).

Although they might have left the employment of the government, the CoI still seem to have provided the majority of their commissions. Some were for the public, like this passport poster from 1966.

While others were only for internal communications, like these secrecy posters, which belong to the same set as ‘Don’t Brag About Your Job’ above.

Although much of this is guesswork, because they worked together and signed posters as Mount/Evans occasionally before this. And Reginald Mount also produced posters under his own name in the 1960s, like this anti-smoking poster in the Science Museum.

Not only is it the close, but hacking relative of ‘Don’t Brag About Your Job’ above, but Mount/Evans also produced several posters on a similar theme.

All of which leaves me a bit confused about how they were working.

What’s more, it’s proving quite hard to find any clarity. Not only is very little written about them, but Google is not my friend: the existence of a Mount Evans in Canada (very popular with walkers, it seems) and a street called Reginald Mount in Leeds does not make for easy searching. So if you’ve got any more information, please do get in contact. I’ve also ordered a book about the Central Office of Information which may or may not help.

But their work is starting to become more appreciated, and to appear on the market too. This Reginald Mount VD poster is for sale at Books & Things for £120.

While this health poster – with what must be a very early Mount/Evans signature – is now a very reasonable £55 on eBay.

Or possibly even less for a best offer.

Swiss eye

auctions, London Transport

I’ve mentioned Poster-Auctioneer before in passing – they’re a specialist poster auction house in Switzerland. And until now I thought they only sold Swiss posters (for Swiss people, etc). But either I hadn’t looked at their website properly, or they’ve expanded it, because now they have a poster shop with plenty of things for immediate sale.

There are still lots of posters of mountains, skiing and cheese, naturally, but a rather useful search function lets you filter out posters by subject. And should you select Public Suburban Traffic, you’ll come across something rather interesting, a set of more than forty pre-war London Transport posters.

Anonymous, 1938, €120 each

What makes them interesting is that what’s on offer here isn’t a collection of the usual suspects. Instead, these look like the pre-war output of London Transport selected with what I can only describe as a Swiss eye, one which is much more interested in photography and type than illustration or whimsy.

Anonymous, 1938, €120

The result is a very different version of London Transport’s output. There are plenty of posters here I’ve never seen before, even though each and every one of them is represented in the London Transport Museum Collection.

Anonymous, 1938, €90

While others only crop up very rarely.

Maurice Beck, 1931, €120

The Petrol Tax poster from this set did come up for sale at the Swann Galleries earlier this year, but Poster-Auctioneer have all three on offer.

There are also some interesting designers represented, like Richard Beck, with both halves of this pair poster up for sale.

Richard Beck, 1938, €230 each

Even better are these two posters by Milner Gray. These seem to be the only two posters he ever designed for London Transport, and both are being offered by Poster Auctioneer.

Shop Early vintage London Transport poster 1938 Milner Gray
Milner Gray, 1938, €120 each

Now the sharp-eyed of you will have noticed that the vast majority of these posters date from 1938. I can’t actually explain this, but I do have a vision of a Swiss designer coming over to Britain just before the war, and spending quite a lot of money at the London Transport Shop before he returned home.

Beath Timber exhibition vintage London Transport poster 1937
Beath, 1937, €180

But however this collection came together, it’s an interesting proof of the fact that you find what you are looking for. A British designer or design historian would argue that, even in London Transport, British modernism never quite happened. But to a Swiss eye, out and about in the capital in 1938, it was very much there, and he carried the proof back with him.

Eckersley Lombers, 1938, €120

This also makes the date even more intriguing. Perhaps a form of continental modernism was about to flower in Britain, only to be cut short by the war? It’s unprovable, but these posters certainly make the idea seem possible.

Of course, the collection is also not quite as didactic and tidy as I am making it seem. In addition to the photographic and typographical posters, there are also some pair posters from after the war, which are much more romantic. I particularly like this John Wood pair poster from 1950.

John Wood, 1950, €250

There’s more flamboyance than that too if you want it.

Denys Nichols, 1950, €240

Another shopping trip perhaps, a recognition that the world had changed after the war. Or perhaps the modernism had all but disappeared from the walls of the Underground. We’ll never know. But I’m very grateful to whoever did put together this collection of posters, because it’s allowed me to see British design in the late 1930s from the outside – and from a very different point of view.

When did you last see an auction?

auctions

So, spring is in the air and the auctions are springing up like dandelions on the lawn. Christies is tomorrow, as mentioned before, and in the meantime two more catalogues have popped up on the web, Onslows and Van Sabben, with auctions on the 18th May and 4th June respectively.

I’ll start with Onslows first, because it is a great soup of an auction and I don’t quite know what to think of it. All of the usual subjects – cruises, railways, travel posters – are represented as you’d expect, but with very few jumping out at me demanding to be either bought or written about. I quite like this Lander, partly because if the Isle of Man is in any way continental, I am an otter.

Eric Lander, 1960, est. £500-700

Our non-existent friend Ralph Mott is also represented with several posters, this being my favourite, mainly for the slower-moving world which it evokes.

Ralph Mott, n.d., est. £150-200

There are also pages – and I mean pages – of wartime propaganda posters from both world wars. Unfortunately, most of them are visual proof of the fact that most wartime posters were not masterpieces of design. And I can’t even find a single one which I really love, this is about as good as they get.

Anonymous, est. £100-150

But not all is doom and gloom if you wander through the catalogue. This Rex Whistler is battered, but still lovely through the creasing and tape.

Rex Whistler, 1930, est. £300-400.

Even better (if you’re me, at least) are a selection of post-war London Transport posters. Probably the most noteworthy is this Bawden.

Edward Bawden, 1936, est. £300-400

But there are other treasures too.

Abram Games, 1964, est. £200-300

Enid Marx, 1964, est. £150-200

Peter Robeson, 1956, est. £100-150.

I’ve always loved that last Robeson poster. Although it’s called ‘When did you last see your Velasquez?’ it’s much more about being contemporary than art historical; in fact it’s like the essence of the mid-1950s distilled onto a single poster. All of which means that, in my book at least, it’s a bit of a bargain at that estimate. But I’m likely to be wrong on that one.

There’s quite a lot of overlap between Onslows and Van Sabben too. Obviously they’ve both got a lot of foreign posters of various sorts, some of which are rather good.

Jean Colin, 1963, est. £250-300

Anonymous, est. £150-200

These are both from Onslows, but as you can imagine, Van Sabben has literally hundreds more.

Max Velthuys, est. €80

More surprising is the other thing they have in common, which is a selection of large format GPO posters by interesting artists. These two are in the Onslows sale:

Hans Schleger, 1942, est. £200-300

Manfred Reiss, 1948, ext. £200-250

While these three are from Van Sabben.

Beaumont, 1960 (?), est. €160

Rothholz, 1948, est. €280

Reiss, 1950, est €150

If only I were a GPO museum, then I’d go on a spending spree, as they’re probably my favourite things on offer. But there are a couple of other interesting items in Van Sabben too, like this pair of Reginald Mount posters.

Reginald Mount, 1950, est. €150

Reginald Mount, 1950, est. €180

The design of the latter one is almost good enough for me to overlook the fact that I am being addressed as Housewife again. I’m not sure if Mrs Housewife is better or worse.

Other than that, it’s the usual suspects here: a few war posters, a couple of railway posters, and, of course, a BOAC poster.

Abram Games, 1953, est. £500

I think they’re compulsory these days.

But for a small selection of posters (perhaps only 30 out of over a thousand) Van Sabben have managed to pull a few interesting ones out of the hat once again. Still don’t know if I’m actually going to buy anything though…