RIP COI

So the Central Office of Information is to be no more (news here in the Guardian).  This is a sad end because once upon a time they produced some rather wonderful posters.  Here’s a handy thought from them for this time of the year.

COI remember your passport when travelling abroad Reginald Mount Eileen Evans vintage poster

Coincidentally, I reccently bought a history of the COI from Abebooks.  (I don’t suggest you do the same: this would be the driest book I have come across for some time, had it not been beaten by History of The Second Word War: Food Volume 2 – Studies in Administration and Control which currently sits on my desk, waiting to bore me out of my wits.)  The real problem, at least as far as I am concerned, is that the book  doesn’t mention posters much.  Here’s pretty much the most interesting – or at least relevant – paragraph in the whole thing.

Over this entire period [i.e. since 1946] the COI has also had the part-time services of Reginald Mount and Eileen Evans as consultants and designers of a long succession of award winning posters, most notably for health education.

Posters like this.

Mount Evans hand palmistry stop smoking vintage poster central office of information

Which does at least answer the question I raised a few weeks back, which was when did Mount/Evans leave the COI and set up on their own?  Although the answer does seem to be a kind of Schroedinger-esque uncertainty principle in which they both left in 1946 when the COI was founded and at the same time never left.  I suppose that as long as we never look in the Ministry box, it will be fine.

What does seem to be true is that the vast majority of the COI posters I have come across seem to be by either Mount/Evans or Reginald Mount on his own.  My very slightly anal database tells me that we have had 28 COI posters at various times, but with very few other artists represented.  One is Thelwell, who produced a whole series of Countryside Code cartoons.

Thelwell Countryside code poster Central Office of Information

While the other is the magnificent Royston Cooper.

Brian the Lion Royston Cooper vintage poster Keep Britain Tidy Central Officec of Information

I also suspect that this Henrion may also be a COI production, but can’t prove it.

FHK Henrion vintage poster Keep Britain Tidy exhibtiion

But that’s almost it.  Which is surprising, because the COI book has a list of designers who worked for them, and it reads like a who’s who of graphic design in the 1950s and 60s.

For posters and book illustrations in the department’s lifetime these have included Rowland Hilder, Milner Grey, John Minton, Topolski, Ardizzone, Abram Games, Ashley Havinden, F H K Henrion, Hans Unger, Eckersley, Laurence Scarfe, James Fitton, Ronald Searle, Edward Bawden, Andre Amstutz, Tunnicliffe and the Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes group.

Now, I can see that our collection is a bit skewed, simply because we bought a lot of Mount/Evans posters at auction a few years ago when what I suspect was their studio archive was being sold off.  But even then, whenever we’ve seen and bought other COI posters they’ve been by them too – like this Keep Britain Tidy design by Reginald Mount.

Keep Britain Tidy vintage poster Reginald Mount for COI

A search of auction houses and archives like VADS reveals pretty much the same pattern – much Mount/Evans and Mount, very little else from the COI.

One reason for this may lie in the history of the COI itself.  The Central Office of Information was formed in 1946 as a replacement for the Ministry of Information, which had produced most of the government’s publicity and propaganda requirements during the war.  But for many people, propaganda of any time was seen as fundamentally not British and unsuited to a democratic state – i.e. this was something that the Nazis did and therefore, by definition, we shouldn’t.  It could only be justified by the needs of war, and so the Ministry had to go at the end of hostilities.

The problem with this was that the war itself didn’t finish so neatly.  Austerity and rationing continued right into the early 1950s, and indeed was stricter in the late 1940s than it had been during the war.  This in turn meant that much of the wartime instruction and exhortation to work hard and make a nutritious meal out of little more than cabbage had to carry on too.  So when the Central Office of Information was founded, it had quite a lot of work on its hands, and I suspect that many of those artists worked for the COI in those early years.

However it’s very hard to tell which these are; my suspicions are that most get lumped in under the heading of ‘World War Two’ posters.  For example, I’ve seen both of these posters, by Lewitt-Him and James Fitton respectively, dated to 1947 rather than during the war itself.

Lewitt Him Vegetabull vintage poster Ministry of Food

Turn Over A New Leaf vintage poster James Fitton Ministry of Food

Neither of these would have been produced by the COI, since the Ministry of Food ran its own posters and publicity throughout the war and I can’t imagine changed that afterwards, but they are good examples of how the wartime messages carried on past 1945.  The only COI poster I know of which is definitely from this period is by Dorrit Dekk.

Dorrit Dekk bones still needed for salvage vintage poster Central Office of Information

Dorrit Dekk only started producing posters in 1946, when she was demobbed from the WRNS and went to work for Reginald Mount at the COI, so this must be from between then and 1948 when she left.  But without knowing this biography, it would be impossible to date the poster and it too would probably be ascribed to the war years as well.  So I imagine that vast swathes of the COI’s early output has either disappeared, or been labelled as ‘wartime posters’ and, unless someone puts in a formidable piece of archival research one day, will never be known.  I also suspect that those were the posters designed by that great list of artists in the book.

As the years went on, the need for government publicity decreased – although this anonymous COI poster is reminiscent of wartime appeals.

Civil Defense COI vintage poster

Judging by her hairdo, I’d put this at quite soon after the war anyway, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone else knows more.

By the late 1950s or early 1960s though, the government just didn’t have as much to say.  Get a passport on time, don’t drop litter, smoke a bit less.  Don’t drink and drive.  And remember to tell the milkman when you go on holiday.

Mount Evans stop the milkman when you're off on holiday vintage poster

It doesn’t have quite the same heady excitement as the war years.  Although the designers were allowed out for a few digressions, such as United Nations Day.

Mount Evans United Nations Day poster 1967

Not every COI poster was aimed at the general public either; Mount/Evans also produced a number of internal campaigns for the government, most notable ‘Keep Our Secrets Secret’ which I’ve mentioned before on here but which are so excellent that I can’t resist posting one more time.

Mount Evans vintage combination  number poster COI

What Every Girl Should Know Mount Evans secrecy poster Central Office of Information

The other reason why there were fewer posters, of course, is that they were no longer the biggest game in town.  More and more, the COI’s main campaigns were conducted through short films, whether in the cinema or in public information slots on the television.  (Should you be interested, the National Archives have put tons of these online for your amusement).  Only the less important messages like UN Day or internal communications would have been put out by posters alone.

But all of this has now gone, and every government message will just be put out by advertising agencies and be indistinguishable from commercial campaigns.  Perhaps one day someone will produce an illustrated and possibly even interesting history of the COI, to show us just what design classics they did produce in their heyday.

When did you last see an auction?

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 Isle of Man Vintage British Railways poster 1960
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 country railway lorry services vintage railway poster
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.

Save Bread and you save lives vintage WW2 propaganda poser
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 vintage shell poster Aylesbury 1930
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 vintage London transport poster 1936
Edward Bawden, 1936, est. £300-400

But there are other treasures too.

Abram Games, London, vintage London Transport poster, 1964
Abram Games, 1964, est. £200-300

Enid Marx Science Museum vintage London Transport poster 1964
Enid Marx, 1964, est. £150-200

Peter Robeson, Velasquez, vintage London Transport poster 1956
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.

Colin Air France India vintage poster 1963
Jean Colin, 1963, est. £250-300

Onslows vintage Swedish exhibition poster
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 vintage GPO poster 1942
Hans Schleger, 1942, est. £200-300

Manfred Reiss, vintage GPO Poster, exports, 1948
Manfred Reiss, 1948, ext. £200-250

While these three are from Van Sabben.

Beaumount vintage GPO poster WW2
Beaumont, 1960 (?), est. €160

Rothholz, vintage GPO poster, 1948
Rothholz, 1948, est. €280

Reiss vintage GPO poster 1950
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 vintage waste paper salvage poster 1950
Reginald Mount, 1950, est. €150

REginald Mount vintage housewife salvage poster 1950
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 vintage BOAC poster 1953
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…

Poster, poster, poster, table.

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.

Coughs and Sneezes vintage poster for sale eBay

Cod liver oil vintage Ministry of Health poster for sale

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.

Keep Britain tidy vintage Reginald Mount poster

Mount Evans drink driving poster for sale

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.

Harold Hussey Birds pair poster 1952 Vintage London Transport wrong side

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

Harold Hussey Birds pair poster Vintage London Transport 1952

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.

JOhn Finnie vintage London Transport poster 1967

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,

Tom Eckersley stock racing poster British Railways from eBay

Or from the States for $195.

Tom Eckersley Stock british railways racing poster with printing

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.

John Piper coffee table

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.

 

Golf and pageantry

The weather is grey, the economy going into a tailspin, but still those auctions keep on coming.  This week’s offering is from The International Poster Center in New York.

Because it’s in New York, it’s heavy on the usual suspects of Art Nouveau, bicycle posters (which for some reason that escapes me are disproportionally collected and expensive), French travel posters and so on.  Although I do quite like this Cassandre, if only as a terrible warning of what television might do to you.

Cassandre 1951 vintage poster for Phillips television
Cassandre, 1951, est. $1,400-1,700

Naturally there are golf posters too, although here at least there is a small amount of British interest.

Rowland Hilder come to Britain for golf vintage travel poster
Rowland Hilder, est. $1,200-1,500

North Berwick vintage travel poster golf Andrew Johnson 1930
Andrew Johnson, 1930, est. $2,000-3,000

People with lots of money do choose the oddest things sometimes.

Elsewhere there are a few more British odds and ends, although they tend towards the traditional, you might even say stereotypical view of Britain.  Golf and pageantry, that is probably what we mean to the Americans.

Christopher Clark Trooping the Colour poster 1952 vintage travel british railways
Christopher Clark, 1952, est. $1,500-2,000

Seeing as we’re here, the poster above raises an interesting question about dating.  The auction house have dated it as 1932.  Which is approximately when the picture was painted, but given that it was previously issued in 1930 as an LMS poster, I’m not even sure that that’s quite right.  Here’s the earlier poster from 1930.

Christopher Clark earlier 1930 for LMS vintage railway poster using same image

But neither of these are really the date of the poster, as the British Railways logo shows – it was actually printed in 1952.  So which is the answer ?  I suppose it depends whether you’re seeing this as a print of the painting, or as a poster itself.  I’d date it at 1952 on that basis – what do you reckon?

Along the same lines is this, which might as well be a print of a painting rather than the Southern region poster it claims to be.

Anna Zinkeisen Southern Region poster Laying of Foundation Stone at Southampton Docks
Anna Zinkeisen, 1938, est. $2,000-2,500

The frame is particularly bemusing, because the description says merely,

B+/ Slight tears at horizontal fold.

but the image on NMSI has no such frame.  So what is going on here?  Search me.

Fortunately there are a couple of pieces of modernity to lighten the day.  Like this Austin Cooper, even if the image is stubbornly retrograde today.

Austin Cooper golliwog vintage London Transport poster Shop between 1928
Austin Cooper, 1928, est. $1,200-1,700

Along with this McKnight Kauffer.

McKnight Kauffer vintage shell poster lubricating oil 1937
McKnight Kauffer, 1937, est. $1,000-1,200

Now the McKnight Kauffer isn’t alone, because one thing that the New York auction does have going for it is an interesting selection of Shell posters.

Vintage Shell poster friend to the farmer Applebee 1952
Leonard Applebee, 1952, est. $700-900

Vintage Shell poster friend to the farmer Hussey 1952
Harold Hussey, 1952, est. $700-900

These two are the most pedestrian of the bunch, but I’m putting them here because the estimates seem quite high.  I can say this from a position of some confidence, given that we bought one of these on eBay for the grand sum of just £12.50 a few years ago.

This Ben Nicholson, however, is great.

Ben Nicholson vintage shell poster Guardsmen use Shell 1938
Ben Nicholson, 1938, est. $800-1,000

But I also rather like this, by Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris.

Summer Shell vintage poster by Cedric Lockwood Morris
Cedric Morris, 1938, est. $800-1,000

I like it and him even better for having read this fantastic reminiscence.  Anyone who gets into a fight with Munnings has a lot going for them.

Should any of these take your fancy, you can bid online via LiveAuctioneers.  But I have to warn you that buyers’ commission comes in  at a rather painful 22.5%, and then you’ve got to get the thing back over the Atlantic too.

All of which makes eBay seem an attractive option.  If only there was anything out there to buy.  All I can offer you at the moment is a lot of rather late Public Information Posters.  Which I’m mainly pulling out to reinforce a point I’ve made before, which is that National Savings posters are rarely design classics.

Vintage National Savings poster from ebay Background to Savings

Vintage National Savings poster EU map

vintage national savings poster inflation

The only one I come close to liking is this incentive to teeth-brushing.

Magic Roundabout brush your teeth vintage public information poster

But I’m not sure I’d pay the £9.99 they’re asking, although I am sure someone will.

The best lot I can find at the moment isn’t even a poster.

Porgy and Bess LP cover by Reginald Mount

The cover design for this LP is by Reginald Mount.  But it would be wasted tucked away on a shelf.

There was one good thing on eBay this week, but we bought it.  So I’ll share that with you when it arrives.

Selling, cont.

There were so many railway and London Transport posters in the Onslows catalogue, that I ran out of time on Friday to consider the rest.  So, today, any other business.

The bulk of this is World War Two posters.  Onslows usually have a fair selection and this sale is no different.

Vintage WW2 poster of nurse from onslows sale
Clixby Watson, est. £100-150

The most interesting, for me at least, are a pair of Mount Evans posters.

Mount Evans waste paper vintage world war two poster from Onslows
Mount Evans, est. £200-250

Mount Evans rags vintage world war two poster from onslows
Mount Evans, est. £100-150

The second one, along with the anonymous fuel poster before, are making an appearance for the second time this year.  So it remains to be seen whether they will make their estimates or not.

Save More Fuel vintage WW2 poster from onslows
Anonymous, est. £50-100

But I still like them both.

There are also an interesting set of posters by Heinz Kurth.  This is the prime one in the listing.

Heinz Kurth AFs poster in Welsh from onslows
Heinz Kurth, est. £50-100 (4)

Of Welsh interest, clearly.  But I actually prefer the three subsidiaries, which are both striking and good.

Heinz Kurth Civil defence posters from Onslows
Heinz Kurth, est. £50-100 (4)

Then there are lots of other ones which are clearly classic and of great interest to collectors, but aren’t necessarily great pieces of design (like Bateman cartoons about saving fuel, for example).  Or like this.

Jobs that girls can do to help win the war vintage WW2 poster from onslows
Anonymous, est £100-150.

Now if that makes its estimate, I will eat my warm woolly socks.  But I shall do so quite happily, because we’ve got a copy of it – don’t ask me why – which we got on eBay for less than a tenner.  Actually that probably tells you why we’ve got it.  But if anyone wants to pay £100+ for it, I am definitely open to offers.

Related to the World War Two material, there are also quite a few National Savings posters.  Mr Crownfolio has pointed out that I keep omitting these from my lists of posters that have been collected, when quite a few of them do survive.  He’s right, but I think I keep leaving them out because while they may be interesting pieces of social history, the vast majority aren’t actually good design.

Vintage National Savings poster from WW2 from onslows
Anonymous, c.1940, est. £40-50

Vintage National Savings map poster from onslows sale
J P Sayer, est. £50-70

It’s an interesting question as to why the National Savings didn’t pay the same close attention to design that the GPO or even HMSO did at the same time.  But it’s not one I have a ready answer to – any suggestions?  There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, and two of them are also in this sale.

Eric Fraser save for progress vintage National Savings poster
Eric Fraser, est. £70-100

Myerscough walker vintage national savings poster from onslows
Myerscough Walker, est. £80-120

Although I’m not entirely convinced about the Myerscough Walker, but it’s still better than  most.

What there isn’t – and it’s a rare contrast to almost every other selling emporium in Britain – is a plethora of coach posters being redistributed after the Morphets sale.  Just a few of this type, which are not unpleasant.

Vintage Coach poster from Onslows sale
Peter Andrews, est. £100-150

The rest is miscellaneous.  I never knew that Schweppes once made cider, for example.

Vintage Schweppes Cider poster from onslows sale
Anonymous, est. £300-400

And looking at that picture, I don’t think that Babycham was an entirely new idea, either.

But this miscellaneous category also contains what are to my mind two of the finest posters in the sale.  They’re both by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, and they’re both wonderful.

Ocean Cable, vintage GPO poster Ellis from onslows sale
Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, 1935, est. £250-300.

Vintage exhibition poster Ellis from onslows sale
Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, 1945, est £200-300

I covet both of these very much.  Here’s the catalogue for the wallpaper exhibition for your further delectation.

Wallpaper Exhibition catalogue from University of Northampton

This could be yours from Abebooks for a bit over £30.  Cheaper than a poster, that’s for sure.

Modern British Collecting

I’ve had Paul Rennie’s Modern British Posters: Art, Design & Communication for a few weeks now, and am guiltily aware that I haven’t given it a proper mention yet.  Now there are a whole heap of real life reasons why this hasn’t happened, which I won’t go on about, but I am also aware that I’m finding it hard to come to a conclusion about it.  Which is absurd, so here are a few thoughts which may or may not come to a definite answer at the end.

Tom Eckersley Seven Seas vitamins advertising vintage poster
Tom Eckersley, Seven Seas Vitamin Oil, 1947

This doesn’t mean that I don’t like it.  The book is beautiful and would justify its cover price (more on that below) for the illustrations alone.  You’ve seen a few on the blog already, there are plenty more littering this post.  There simply isn’t another book covering these subjects in this detail and with this kind of wonderful reproduction, so it’s a great thing to have.

H A Rotholz, vintage GPO poster stamps in books
HA Rothholz, Stamps in Books, GPO, 1955

Even better, the book mentions Quad Royal which is very flattering indeed.  So now it’s been immortalised in print, I’d better keep this thing going for a while, rather than just be a fly-by-night blog.

Reginald Mount Keep Britain Tidy poster
Reginald Mount, Keep Britain Tidy, 1950s

But as well as the book being a whole treasure trove of beautiful images, Paul Rennie also makes some really good points about posters and collecting, so much so that I am going to repeat them all over again here.  At the start, he observes that part of the reason that no one else has written this book before him is that the world of the poster, in Britain at least, is absurdly fragmented.

For example, railway posters, motoring posters and war propaganda all form specialised archives within separate institutions. Within the context of these distinct institutions, there is no urgent requirement to integrate the various and disparate parts into a history of visual communication.

I’ve touched on this in posts before – this odd disjunction between disciplines results in quirks like the National Railway Museum not thinking about its posters in terms of designers on their website and many other odd occurrences.  People who know all about railway posters might have no idea about the history of the Ministry of Information; the Imperial War Museum has no reason to care about what designers did before or after the war.  As a result, Modern British Posters is therefore pretty much the first decent survey of the whole, and that can only be applauded.

Abram Games London Transport poster
Abram Games, At London’s Service, London Transport, 1947

I’m also really interested when, at the end of the book, he sets out the history of how they started collecting, and the rationale behind what they chose to buy.  Partly because he started out by being fascinated by the Festival of Britain and then, in discovering more about Abram Games and the Festival symbol, found himself intrigued by a wider world of graphics and communication.  I trod exactly the same path too (I still have the little Festival badge that I used to wear on my hat as a teenager); it makes me wonder how many people have followed the same thoughts, and also why the Festival exerts such a potent hold over our imaginations even now.

Abram Games British Railway Poster
Abram Games, See Britain By Train, British Railways 1951.

But he also explains why they bought what they did.

Our collecting began, back in about 1982, with an interest in modern design… In 1982, the words British and Modernism seemed like a contradiction in terms.

The direction of our collecting was formed in relation to this widespread,and misguided, perception of British resistance to modernity. Conveniently, it turned out that British items were generally of little interest to international collectors and were, accordingly, less expensive to purchase.

In a way, I wish he’d put this manifesto right at the start of the book, because it’s really important.  This is partly because this is – and Paul Rennie freely acknowledges the point himself – a very partial book.  Every single illustration is from their own collection and so knowing the history behind it makes a big difference to the way you might read the book as a whole.  (I have been trying to work out whether there is a similar unifying idea behind our own collecting; so far I have only managed to come up with: It was cheap and we liked it).

Henrion BOAC poster
Henrion, BOAC Speedbird, 1947

The idea of the British relation to modernism itself is really interesting, and something I’d want to think about at length and probably devote a whole blog post (0r three) to.  But it also informs a lot of the arguments that he’s making in the main bulk of the book, so it would have been good to know beforehand.

Now, I have to confess that between these two ideas I did get a bit lost in the middle of the book. Now this is partly I think a problem of the form – Paul Rennie is heroically attempting a complete survey not only of the history of posters in Britain, but also of the social and economic conditions which affected how they were produced.  So it is, of necessity, a bit of a race through quite a lot of ideas and thoughts.

But also – and this is the bit I have been pondering for a while – Modern British Posters is at heart an academic book.  It’s having a dialogue with a lot of other books, and theories of art and design, ideas about cultural production and the transmission of modernism, and that simply isn’t a conversation that I am part of any more.  Academia and I gave up on each other more than twenty years ago, and since then I have been concentrating on the much simpler task of telling stories about people and things.  So the fault is probably with me rather than the book, for which I can only apologise.  I’d be interested to hear what anyone else thinks about this, particularly if you’re a design historian and have read it.

Telephone Less Tom Eckersley 1945
Tom Eckersley, Telephone Less, GPO, 1945

If you haven’t read it yet, and want to have an opinion, which of course you do, I am pleased to say that there is also a special Quad Royal readers’ offer (we’ve never had one of those before, get us).  The book is available at a massive 40% off the list price to you our esteemed reader.  To get hold of it, just email jess at blackdogonline.com, with Quad Royal Readers Offer as the subject line, and she will sort out the rest.