London Underground Poster Archives - Page 9 of 19

On the buses (and bus stops too)

One of the real joys of writing this blog is getting a response on a subject from People Who Really Know. So after my post about long thin posters, it was very good to hear from Michael Wickham who gave me a lot more information about where these kind of posters were displayed. Along with illustrations, and permission to share it with everyone here. I don’t really need to say much more, do I?

Posters were/still are produced for the timetable panels on bus stops. These are very close to A4 size (or double that or treble that, vertically) and have been produced since the late 1920s. Until quite recently, they were produced with two punch holes in the top cormers and hung on screws inside the frame. Nowadays, they are laminated. The 1974 Harry Stevens you mentioned on 9/3 is one of these, as you suggested.

Of course, the vast majority of these posters were timetables, in tabular form without any artistic element whatsoever. However, LT filled unused spaces in the frames with other material, eg exhortations not to drop litter, to avoid rush hours, queue properly etc and, occasionally to advertise attractions which could be reached by bus. For some of these, an established artist would be employed. Here area couple from my collection, both by Clifford Wilkinson – London’s Country Houses from 1953 (triple A4 vertical)

and Windsor Castle from 1951 (double A4 vertical).

The timetables have survived in reasonable numbers because bus enthusiasts have collected them but the “artistic” posters are quite rare survivors.

Other posters have been produced for interior use inside buses (above the seats). There are two standard sizes of these: 25″ x 8″ used from the 1930s until the present and a larger size (25″ x 11″) used on more modern types of buses. Below are a 1944 issue of the first type, by Midge,

and a 1976 issue of the second, by Harry Stevens.

In addition, there were sundry-size posters for the buses in the 1950s-70s for specific panels, eg on the front bulkhead, above the front windows on the upper deck and on the staircase panel. Some examples of these:

A 1960 Galbraith – “Please help the Conductor” – 20″ x 9″

A 1959 Galbraith – “Avoid Rush Hour Travel” – 24″ x 5″

A 1934 Zinkeisen – “Aldershot Tattoo by private bus” – 12″ x 10″

The 12″ x 10″ size was also used on the Underground from the 1930s until the 1970s. The Underground ones had a non-see-through backing, usually dark grey, because these posters were affixed to the glass vestibules by the train doors.

There are two other common sizes on the Underground: the cards which go in the carriages above the windows and the portrait type used on the escalators. I don’t have any “artistic” ones of either of these as they are largely used for commercial advertising.

All of which is comprehensive, brilliant and very much appreciated. What’s more, he’s also very happy to answer any questions if you have any. So thank you very much, Michael Wickham.

Thick and Thin

posters

This has been hanging around on the bookshelves for a bit, waiting to find a home.

Which is quite a tricky problem as I can’t exactly roll it up as it’s on card. Fortunately I’m starting to quite like it where it is; it may be there for a while.

The design is by Royston Cooper and dates, according to Christies at least, from 1960. Until the long one turned up on eBay, I’d only ever known the image in its upright form.

But I think I prefer it reclining. Here’s the whole thing for your delectation, and to enable you to consider just how little a coach trip from Worcester to Slough in 1960 would be as much fun as the poster.

All of which made me think about long thin posters. Partly only so that I could post this, which is one of my favourite posters ever.

The entire 1950s encapsulated in a fifteen inch long piece of paper. Genius.

Mr Crownfolio remembers that the seller told him this was produced for the Sheffield buses, but other long thin posters turn up in a couple of places.

For example, the GPO produced strip posters for their vans. At 51″ long, they were almost like till rolls and I’ve only ever seen them on the BPMA site. Which makes this Austin Cooper, at a mere 6″ x 20″, a bit of a mystery.

It dates from 1944 so perhaps they were fixed to bicycles rather than vans. Or something.

London Transport were the other home of strangely shaped posters, like this 1974 Harry Stevens that I think may have been meant for display on a bus stop.

And this Eckersley from 1960 which the LT Museum site call a panel poster.

Which were meant for both buses and tubes, it seems.

Panel posters were produced for display in Underground car interiors, as well as on the inside and outside of buses and trams. Because they did not have to fit a standard frame or wall space, they are smaller than other poster formats and vary slightly in size.

And I imagine that because so many were pasted on, only a few survive. That’s a shame really, because in many ways they are very manageable posters, much easier to find space for than some of their bigger cousins. At least I hope that’s true, because we’ve bought another two from the seller of the Cooper, by Studio Seven and Lander this time. More on those when they arrive.

Poster, poster, poster, table.

eBay

There are a ridiculous number of posters on eBay right now, and I’m not just talking about the Crownfolio clearance sale. The poster collectors of the world seem to be spring cleaning with a vengance. Or something. Whatever the cause may be though, there are posters out there and you can buy each and every one of them for money.

To start with, worthydownbookstore have unleashed a flood of health and public information posters. Now I quite like a few of these. Although I am less of a fan of the carpet.

But I don’t think that many of them (with the possible exception of the one above) are from World War Two, which is how they are all described. This Reginald Mount I am pretty sure is early 1950s (another from the campaign has appeared on here before ) while the one below that has to be even later.

Whatever the actual dates, it’s still an interesting haul. As ever, my beef is with the prices, which range from £45 to £80 for the ones above. all on Buy It Now. Which is only a bit under what I’d expect to see them fetching in an expensive gallery, rather than on a carpet. We shall see.

One of our regular haunts, thebasement101, is currently selling a selection of what can only be described as the wrong sides of pair posters – the side with all of the text rather than the pretty pictures, like this Harold Hussey from 1952.

Compare and contrast with the other side. I think the birds have it over the words.

And, like every other LT poster they sell, the asking price is £99. Not even the linen backing can make that value for money. Unless I suppose you want to make up the pair.

While we’re there, you could also pay £95 for this 1967 poster by John Finnie. Or perhaps not.

I would love to know where all of these linen backed posters came from though.

Elsewhere, a quirk of fate means that you have not one but two chances to buy this Tom Eckersley stock poster; either in the UK for £150,

Or from the States for $195.

Another fine carpet there too, I see.

Finally, something which is not a poster, not for sale on eBay and doesn’t even have an estimate attached. But it is wonderful.

And unlike a poster or indeed pretty much anything else by John Piper, you can put your coffee cup down on it. For sale on the 10th in Malvern if you wish to enquire further.

Pursued

London Transport

I found these while looking for something else altogether on the LT museum poster site. And I’ve never seen them before.

They’re a rather surprising departure by Eckersley-Lombers and date from 1938.

The design reminds me more of book covers of the period than posters. But it’s great.

While we’re in the domain of London Transport design, there’s also this post-war Unger.

It came up on eBay, and so Mr Crownfolio and I thought we’d invest some of our selling proceeds in it. But then who could resist a poster which, as well as showing a fabulous and only marginally relevant fish, also manages to rhyme Dorking and torking? Not us, that’s for sure.

Next time, unbelievable quantities of posters for sale on eBay and elsewhere. So many in fact that I don’t have enough time to fit them into a post today. See you then.

Baying

eBay

Well I’d like to say that I was persuaded to write about our own eBay sales by the overwhelming vote that I should. After all, it was 100% in favour. There on the other hand, there was only one vote. But as that voter also correctly worked the eBay seller ID and outed us in the comments, there’s not much point in being coy any more. So now you can all see the piles of slightly underwhelming posters that have piled up by accident over the years.

But in a way it’s a relief. Not because I’m desperate to publicise them, but because there are one or two which I’d have definitely mentioned on here had someone else been selling them. Like this LMS/LNER poster for example.

It’s a rum ‘un. It would be quite unusual just for being a photographic railway poster produced before the Second World War (the NMSI dates it to 193o, but as the book was published in 1932 my guess would be that’s the actual date). But it’s even odder because it’s not a simple railway poster; instead it’s promoting a book about Scotland. The idea being, I assume, that you would read the book, be seized by a desire to go immediately to Scotland and then book your tickets with the railway. Which is not unreasonable, but I’ve still never seen anything like this before. Anyone else?

It came, like so much else on eBay at the moment, from the last Morphets sale. In this case, it came from one of the very last lots of assorted odds and ends, and which also included the four Jock Kinneir typeface posters. So rather a treasure trove in the end. But we will not – and I can say this with some certainty – ever put this on the wall, so it will be much better off somewhere else.

The other posters worth your time are the black and white tourist posters

Not immediately prepossessing, I’ll admit. But that’s part of the reason why they’re interesting. The posters (there’s a few, but I’ll spare you the rest) are all in various shades of black and white, ranging from greenish to sepia, and are printed on some really quite poor paper.

It’s not exactly how you might imagine advertising inercontinental tourism to the Americans in the early 1950s (these posters originally came from the States, so that’s what I’m assuming they were over there doing).

But technicolour was out of reach for Britain after the war; this slightly shoddy monochrome was all the country could afford at the time. So these posters are another reminder of the hardships of the post-war period, when every ounce of the country’s production and economic muscle had to go on exports, as the debts of the war had to be repaid. I wonder whether must sometimes have felt harder than the war itself, like running a marathon and then discovering that you’ve got to walk home.

But that’s not the only reason to look at them. Because, elsewhere on eBay, this is also for sale.

Similarly tatty, but if anything a slightly more challenging image of docks rather than historic castles (I wonder whether any Americans did come over to visit the Lancashire Docks as a result of this poster campaign; I am inclined to suspect not). But this seller has priced his at £49.99, ours started at just 99p.

So who’s right? What’s this poster really worth? Normally I’m in favour of starting with a low opening price on eBay, on the basis that if you’ve described it and photographed it well, a good poster will find its level. But I have to say that a sale in the last few weeks (about which I will blog later this week) has made me wonder whether that’s always true.

It still works for posters like an Eckersley or a Games, where people are searching for those designers and their works. I think that’s probably true of railway posters too. But with less well-known types like these, where there aren’t any obvious keywords that will be searched on, then what do you do? In our case, put them on at 99p because we want to get rid of them – but also put them on with some posters that will be found in searches so that poster collectors might actually see them. And a couple of these have now gone up to £5 already, so they do have some value. But will they ever be worth £50? Perhaps to one person and I’ve got it wrong. Or perhaps not; we will see.

And finally, when I was researching this in the LT Museum catalogue (it says it’s from 1967 and by Peter Roberson on the bottom so I don’t quite know what else I was expecting to find out)

I found this.

Isn’t that fantastic? Does anyone have one going spare? I promise I’ll pay more than 99p for it.

No alarms and no surprises

eBay

I keep prevaricating about whether to post about eBay or this week or not. There is stuff out there, but very little of it makes me jump up and down with excitement. But then I thought perhaps that’s not fair, one man’s meat etc. So here it is. But don’t blame me if you don’t like it.

Let’s start with this, as the precise encapsulation of the malaise.

Yes, it is an 1957 Abram Games poster, with an opening bid of just £50. But, how shall I put this, it’s not the most inspiring Games poster I’ve ever seen.

The seller has a few more posters for sale too, including this one,

Which means that I can take an educated guess that he, like so many other sellers, got these from the third Morphets Sale. It’ll be very quiet when all that dust has settled, won’t it.

But the other posters he’s offering are a bit more interesting.

They look like the kind of half-printed stock excursion posters that were more commonly produced by the coach companies. But he says these ones are 40″ x 25″ and so railway sized, and I can’t find any trace of them in the Morphets sale. I’ve seen a few before, but they tend to be earlier, like this Eckersley.

Of course there may be loads of them, and they either weren’t kept much, or else they are sold continually at railwayana auctions and I fail to notice them as they go buy. I shall endeavour to be more vigilant in future.

Elsewhere, expensive things.

Now I cannot deny that this is a very fine poster, mounted on linen and doubtless worth a small fortune were it to come up at Christies. But is anyone going to pay $1,200 for it on eBay? I think not. Especially not if they refer to it as ‘whimsical’ in the item description. Were I about to spend a lot of money on something, I’d rather have it referred to as a very serious investment, thank you, not ‘whimsical’. Honestly.

Now there are some other posters out there on eBay that I would normally mention but haven’t. And that’s because we’re selling them. Now a good part of this is because of embarrassment – much of what we’re selling is some rather tatty odds and ends that I’d rather pretend we’d never bought. Along with one or two nice bits too.

But there’s also an editorial question of how to do this without turning the blog into a shop window. Shall I just leave it out? Or would you like me to mention stuff that I would, under other circumstances, point at but make it clear that they’re ours and bear the shame anyway? I don’t have an answer to that, so if anyone does, I’d like to hear it.

Finally, auction description of the week.

A box of wooden items, including elephants and posters.

We’ve asked, so if I get hold of a picture of a wooden poster, I’ll share it, I promise.