Mmmm, 1976 never looked so good

eBay

Sold on eBay this weekend*, proof that poster design hadn’t gone into a complete decline by the 1970s, in the shape of this wonderful London Zoo poster by Abram Games.

Abram Games Zoo poster

I think this is great, and that’s a bit of a rare event.  Because, in my mind, Abram Games is rather like oysters or Gainsborough.  Everyone else thinks they’re wonderful, and I know I’m supposed to think that they’re fabulous as well, but I can’t do it.  I can admire them, I can see why other people pay lots of money for them (ish) but I just don’t like them that much.  With Abram Games, his posters are great pieces of design, but more often than not they feel to me a bit worthy, if not dour, and I wouldn’t necessarily want them hanging on my wall.  This, however, has a real lightness of touch which makes it a pleasure to look at – and the tiger (edit: of course that’s what it is) is smiling.  Who wouldn’t want to live with that.

Another surprise about this auction was the finishing price of just over £156, which felt quite low.  This isn’t just because it’s a lovely poster of a kind which doesn’t come up that often, but also because of idiosyncracies of eBay keyword search.  Named designers sell much better than good design, and Games seems to be –  correct me if you think otherwise – the top search in posters.  So a bit of a surprise that this didn’t turn into a more expensive battle.

If all of that fuzziness and folding is giving you a headache, by the way, this is what it ought to look like in focus and with a bit of light restoration.

Abram Games Zoo poster nice

Rather nice.

*You will notice as this blog goes on that I’ll point you to some eBay auctions while they’re going on, and to others after they’ve finished.  This may be a bit infuriating – for which I apologise – but it doesn’t take the mind of Einstein to work out that it rather depends on whether or not we’ve decided to bid on them.  These days, it’s hard enough to pick up a bargain on eBay without inviting half the internet (or, as things stand at the moment, the rather smaller number of readers of this blog) to bid on the posters we’re after as well.

What’s wrong with this picture?

auctions

At some point I need to write properly about the giant Morphets poster auction, even though it had been and gone before I got this blog going.  The sale was so big and so insane, and the prices so stratospheric, that it really can’t be ignored*, but to be honest I still haven’t quite got my head round it yet.  So let’s start with something simple.  This lovely poster.

Coventry Cathedral Basil Spence BR poster

Now I love this.  It’s an original architect’s drawing of one of the great buildings of the post-war reconstruction, and the typography is smart and of the period too.  If you showed it to an architect or a design historian (or just someone who is a fan of fifties graphics and wants something good – if rather large – to hang on their wall), they’d fall over themselves to buy one.  Or so you’d think.

Because in fact it’s not worth very much at all.  There were three of these on sale at the Morphets auction, all A condition.  One went for £140, one for £75, and the third didn’t sell at all.  And this in an auction where pretty much everything else made mincemeat of the estimates.

So what’s the problem?  Is it just that railway poster collectors (whoever they are) are traditional folks, who like pictures of countryside, historic buildings and of course trains on their walls?  Am I actually one of only about twelve people in the country who like 50s graphics.  Or is there something else very wrong with it that I can’t see?  Any thoughts or answers very welcome, because I certainly don’t know.

Oh, and I didn’t buy one because we’ve got one already.  Bought for £100 a few years ago, and it felt like a bargain.  Clearly I was wrong.

*For those of you whom it did pass by, there were almost six hundred railway posters for sale, the vast majority in boxfresh condition, and many of which I’d certainly never seen before.  But it was the sheer volume of stuff which was overwhelming.  Want a poster of Somerset?  That’s fine, there’s about twenty five to choose from.  Devon?  Oh, just another thirty or so.  And so it went on.  Perhaps I’ll write about it properly next time.

Why would you want to buy a poster?

eBay

I could say quite a lot about railwayana and other transport obsessives.  And even more about eBay.  But for now, it’s enough just to say that one reason to buy a poster might be to decorate your bus.  Yes, you heard me right there.

two bus posters

That’s why this eBay seller is suggesting you buy these.  The left hand one is a pretty grim bit of 1970s brown, but the other one isn’t bad at all, particularly for £1.99 + postage.  And there are nine, so you can all have one.  Even if you haven’t got a Routemaster.

The Lord Mayor’s Show poster is by Peter Roberson who did a fair amount for London Transport, including this

when did you last see your velasquez?

which is about as wonderfully 1956 as it is possible to be.