Norman Wilkinson Archives - Page 2 of 2

Boarding

Our theme today is things mounted on board. Because twice today I’ve looked at a promsingly low-priced item, only to discover that the apparent cheapness is justified, because it has been glued to a large lump of chipboard. Sigh.

The first offender is this – estimated at a mere £80-120, which is a pittance for such a lovely thing.

This Deco splendery is by Alfred Clive Gardiner from 1926 and I like it very much.

It’s on offer in the forthcoming Bloomsbury Poster and other bits and bobs Auction on 20th January. Sadly, there isn’t a great deal else there to detain us. A McKnight Kauffer perhaps. estimated at £200-400.

Of interest to me at least is this Norman Wilkinson National Savings poster, estimated at £100-200.

It’s the estimate that I’m most interested in, as we have two of these (I know, I have no idea why) which we’d happily sell now, so if they end up being worth anything like that it will be what is known as a result.

Other than that, it’s the usual run of Art Nouveau, sleek Art Deco cruise liners and pictures of people skiing. Although this one did at least make me laugh.

Estimate £250-35o for the political animals amongst us.

The second piece of boardery turned up on eBay. £199 Buy It Now seemed very cheap for a vintage Claude Buckle GWR poster.

Until you get close to it. Not only is it mounted on board, but someone seems to have been taking pot shots at it too.

The seller does have a couple of other interesting poster too, albeit at a price. This Percy Drake Brookshaw comes up every so often in auctions and so on.

And every time it does, it gives me a headache, so I certainly wouldn’t pay £200 for it (and, judging by its auction record, neither would anyone else).

But I do quite like this 1958 image by John Cort.

At £150 Buy It Now or a bright bit of 1950s moderne, I suspect that will go quite soon (although Mr Crownfolio thinks I am wrong there). And if it doesn”t, it should.

But I do also have a question about chipboard, or rather the posters that are stuck to them. I am assuming that these have such low estimates because it’s not really possible to get the poster off the board. Is this so, or is the process reversible?

This isn’t an abstract question, either. We’ve got this lovely 1922 London Underground poster by Alfred Rutherston in just that state.

So if it can be released, I’d really like to know.

Keep the noise down

posters

We’re all about selling this week on Quad Royal. Partly because time for contemplation is a bit thin on the ground, but also because there’s a lot of stuff about demanding our attention.

Firstly, Fougasse.

Quite a number of his posters are currently being sold by a dealer called Neil Jennings. Now I wouldn’t usually bother you with this kind of thing, but these are quite an impressive set.

To start with, they’re not the most reproduced examples of his work (there are some that I haven’t seen before; but then Mr Crownfolio says he’s come across them all, so I clearly haven’t been paying proper attention).

They’re also interesting because of their provenance, which is from the family. Hence the pristine condition.

Finally, I do rather like the series that he did about noise for hospitals, not just because they’re less common and I hate extraneous noise, but also because the one below is curiously modern.

And I’ve definitely never seen it before.

I’m not sure why I’m being nice to Neil Jennings, though. He waved this in front of me.

Now I’ve raved about this before. It’s Barbara Jones’ poster for the exhibition she curated as part of the Festival of Britain, and it’s one of the very small list of posters that Mr Crownfolio and I would buy at almost any price. I didn’t think I’d ever see it turn up, to be honest. But Neil Jennings has only gone and sold it already. Humph.

Elsewhere in the world of dealerism, something which is definitely not for me but I will tell you about as it is slightly out of the normal run of things. The Travelling Art Gallery, who mostly deal in carriage prints, are selling seven Norman Wilkinson original art works.

This is his painting for the 1930 LMS poster of the Cairngorms below.

These come with a good story, too. All seven were apparently found down the back of a wardrobe in North London. A wardrobe which did once belong to an LMS official, so that’s a fair kind of provenance.

They have been priced quite highly though. The Cairngorms artwork has a reserve of £2,500, whereas the poster itself went for just £400 at Morphets earlier this year, so we’ll have to see whether or not Wilkinson’s reputation means that his artwork commands that high a premium over the poster when most don’t. Although the way that the auction is being conducted – bids to be sent in before the 31st October – means that we might in fact never find out. I imagine poster collectors and Wilkinson fans will find that a bit of a shame.

I have to say that I prefer the slightly enhanced contrast and colour of the poster to the original artwork itself. But I may be in a minority there.