Lend a hand

There’s a certain inevitability about the fact that now I’ve written the Home Front Posters book, a whole heap of new information about World War Two posters has popped up in various places.  This isn’t entirely a painful discovery, and not just because I am now resigned to the fact that while research could go on indefinitely, books do have deadlines.  Because today’s exhibit is that particular joy, a brand new archive.

What’s happened is that the National Archives have digitised a significant chunk of their wartime posters and are distributing them via Wikipedia.  (There’s a full explanation here if you want to know more).  It’s very exciting because there are a large number in there that I’ve never seen before.  Here’s a rather nice Dorrit Dekk to begin with.

Dorrit Dekk World War Two propaganda poster Staggered Holidays

This isn’t just an act of altruism but also a kind of crowd-sourcing, because the archives don’t have much information about many of these posters and they’re asking for people to help with everything from attributions to translation of foreign-language posters.

Part of the challenge, particularly with matching artists to designs is that these aren’t printed posters but the original artworks, quite often without the signatures that the finished item would have.  So it ends up being a process more like finding the provenance of a painting.  For example, we have this Eileen Evans, signed.

Lend a Hand on the Land Eileen Evans World War Two propaganda poster

Which makes it a fairly reasonable guess that these two posters in the National Archives are also by her.

Lend a Hand potato harvest farming holiday camp poster artwork eileen evans national archives ministry of information

Lend a hand with the potato harvest farming holiday camp world war two poster eileen evans ministry of information artwork

In fact I’m confident enough about that to have amended the description for each of those.

Only 350 of the 2,000 designs in the National Archives have been uploaded so far, but what’s already striking is how many of these I’ve never even seen before.  Take this Pat Keely for example.

Pat Keely wait for daylight world war two blackout poster artwork national archives

I think he owes McKnight Kauffer an acknowledgement on that one. Keely’s quite well-represented in the selection that are up so far, again often with previously unseen posters.

Cross at the lights world war two blackout poster national archives Pat Keely

What’s difficult, though, is to interpret what these previously unknown designs actually mean.  Are these for posters which were printed but are as yet unreported – whether that is because a copy never survived, or perhaps does exist but has not yet been digitised by the Imperial War Museum?  Or are they designs which were not actually ever produced?  In many ways. my bet would be on the latter.  Artworks which never went to the printers would be far more likely to survive.

Then on the other hand, this artwork is in there, for a poster which was very definitely printed in quite large numbers.

Make do and mend world war two poster ministry of information artwork

There’s not an obvious conclusion to be had.  Except perhaps that – because of wartime haste, limited record-keeping and the only accidental survival of what were intended to be very ephemeral bits of paper – we’ll probably never have the definitive list of World War Two Home Front posters, never mind their dates and artists.

It’s also worth remembering that this collection is very partial. The artworks all came from the Ministry of Information, but they were by no means the sole source of posters during the war.  Both National Savings and the Ministry of Food, two of the highest-spending departments at the time, commissioned their own advertising, so very few of their designs, if any, would turn up in the MoI’s archives.   And that’s without considering other poster producers, from British Railways to the Army.  Even so, there are still some delightful surprises in there.  It may not be the greatest design ever – apparently by the mysterious Xenia – but I love the idea of Village Produce Associations a lot.

Xenia poster artwork village produce associations

So I am very happy to report that Google reveals many VPA’s founded during the war are still going today.  Hurrah.

That kind of continuity after the war is also apparent in the poster designs.  It’s easy to believe, as I’ve said on here before, that all wartime posters stopped as soon as hostilities ceased, but that’s far from the truth.  Many campaigns, from salvage to fuel saving, just continued unchanged.  This fuel saving poster – in the great tradition of bossy shouty slogans – could date from during or after the war.

Turn that Gas down World War Two austerity fuel saving poster national archives

Other campaigns, meanwhile, were reversioned for the peace.

Dig for Plenty world war two poster reversioned for austerity post war national archives

Dig for plenty world war two austerity poster national archives artwork

It’s also fascinating to see some of the very definitely post-war designs produced by the new Labour Government to persuade people that the continuing austerity was necessary – a much harder job than wartime propaganda.

We work or want post world war two propaganda poster national archives

Wages and salaries can only go up with production post war propaganda poster national archives

These seem to me to be much rarer than the wartime posters, presumably because, by this stage of post-war austerity, no one at all wanted to keep them as a souvenir.

There’s plenty more to be seen in there too – including this Percy Drake Brookshaw artwork for – well for what?

Percy Drake Brookshaw apple picking artwork for something national archives

So why not take a look and see what I’ve missed out.

 

Informative

Today’s post is crowdsourcing, Quad Royal style, because lots of very kind people have been sending me links to posters on sale or sold recently.  So the least I can do, of course, is share them.

The first, and following on nicely from my last post, is this Daphne Padden poster for British Railways, which is up for sale in America via eBay.

Vintage Daphne Padden British Railways poster Lancashire Blackpool tower.

It’s a great poster, and one that I have never ever seen before and can’t find much trace of either, apart from the fact that one sold in the Midlands about three years ago.  Despite all that, and an attempt at a frame, the price seems a bit steep to me at £300+ for a starting bid.  But thank you to Mike Jacob for putting that my way nonetheless.

Also forthcoming, and emailed to me by Mr Crownfolio upstairs, is a Christies poster sale.  But don’t get too excited, this is an Olympic special, and there are very few Olympic posters I can get enthusiastic about, with this Richard Beck from 1956 perhaps the only exception.

Richard Beck 1956 Olympic poster
Richard Beck, 1956, est £800-1,200

And I definitely don’t want to buy an Olympic torch (there are a surprising number on offer too).  Given that, there isn’t a great deal else to report from the catalogue.  All I can point you towards are a handful of McKnight Kauffer’s.

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954)  EARLS COURT MOTOR SHOW  1937
McKnight Kauffer, 1937. est. £700-900

The one below has to be my favourite, although this is less a result of the image than the estimate.

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954)  ENO'S "FRUIT SALT"  lithograph in colours, 1925,
McKnight Kauffer, 1925, est. £1,200 – 1,800

We got another one of this series on eBay about eighteen months ago, only for a small fraction of what Christies thinks it is worth, an experience which never fails to please me.  And it’s a nicer image, to boot.

There is also a classic Abram Games.

Abram Games (1914-1996)  JOIN THE ATS  lithograph in colours, 1941
Abram Games, 1941, est. £2,000 – 3,000

Along with this Peter Roberson, which I am guessing only slips through Christies minimum lot requirements thanks to the Festival of Britain interest.

Peter Roberson (1907-1989)  VISITOR'S LONDON, FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN  lithograph in colours, 1950
Peter Roberson, 1950, est. £1,200 – 1,600

My favourite British poster is probably this obscure and slightly pallid Victor Pasmore.

Victor Pasmore (1908-1998)  LONDON GROUP  lithograph in colours, 1948
Victor Pasmore, 1948, est. £600 – 800

Note the use of British in the sentence above.  Because once again, the local talent is having to compete for my attention with a small but lovely set of David Klein posters.

David Klein (1918-2005)  MIAMI, FLY TWA  offset lithograph in colours, c.1960
David Klein, 1960, est. £800 – 1,200

David Klein (1918-2005)  LOS ANGELES, FLY TWA  offset lithograph in colours, c.1958
David Klein, 1958, est. £800 – 1,200

David Klein san fransciso 1958
David Klein, 1958, est. £800 – 1,200 

That first one in particular is fabulous, if a touch unaffordable.

The bad news is not just the small selection of posters I want to look at either.  As far as I can tell from Christies’ Calendar, this will be their only poster sale this spring.  And eBay’s gone into the doldrums too.  There’s nothing left for it, I may have to start trawling the railwayana catalogues to keep my hopes up.

There are still a few glimmerings in the provincial auction scene as well, although I might have to get my act together a bit in reporting them to you.  James Manning pointed out that Dreweatts have been selling more Percy Drake Brookshaws in a recent sale.

Now I say more because one of my first ever posts on here was about some of his posters being sold at the same auction house.  Both then and now they seem to have come from the artist’s family, who have clearly been disposing of what they have in dribs and drabs.  And also saving the best stuff until last.

A London Underground advertising poster, 'While Others Wait - A Season [Ticket] / Takes You Through', 1928, by Percy Drake Brookshaw (1907-93)

What’s most amusing about these lots is the discrepancy between the estimates and the results.  I would have been very happy to get the poster above for the £50-60 that Dreweatt’s estimated.  Sadly it went for £550.  Although perhaps not sadly, given that I missed the sale.

That wasn’t a freak occurrence either, all the posters reached similarly high prices.  The boat race poster below was estimated at £100-150, but sold for almost ten times that, £1,100.

A London Underground advertising poster, for the University Boat Race, 'Saturday March 31st - 9.45 a.m. / Nearest Stations: Putney Bridge, Hammersmith / Ravenscourt P[ar]k, Turnham Green & Chiswick P[ar]k', 1928, by Percy Drake Brookshaw

While this classic would have been the bargain of the century at its £60-80 estimate.

A London Underground advertising poster, for the University boat race, 1937, by Percy Drake Brookshaw

But it too went for £1,100.

I swear I will never ever fully understand the poster market.  Prices like that make me think that the internet is doing its job in flattening out the market, as anyone with an interest and a tiny bit of understanding of searches on websites can find almost any lot up for sale and bid on it.  But why doesn’t that work with eBay then?  Why can we buy a McKnight Kauffer on there for a tenth of its Christies price?  I think we might need to write a specialist piece of poster market theory, so if there is an economist in the house, can they get in touch?  And for anyone else, please do keep sending the auction links and anything else that takes your fancy, they’re very much appreciated.

 

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.

Alfred Clive Gardiner 1926 vintage London Transport poster Kew Gardens from Bloomsbury

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.

McKnight Kauffer ARP vintage WW2 poster 1938

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

Norman Wilkinson National Savings Poster from Bloomsbury auction

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.

Visite Portillo vintage skiing poster Chile

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.

Claude Buckle Bath poster from eBay GWR vintage railway 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.

Percy Drake Brookshaw vintage travel poster from eBay

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.

John Cort vintage 1958 travel poster excursions to the continent

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.

Albert Rutherston 1922 vintage London Underground poster on board from us

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

Edge wear

And still they keep c0ming.  Today – cue drum roll – it’s eBay Watch.  Along with a bit of complaining from me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got no problem with what’s out there.  Because there’s loads of it.

Let’s start with this Aer Lingus poster, which is very stylish.

John Bainbridge Aer Lingus poster c1950s

Although it’s in German it was printed in Ireland and is by Bainbridge.  This is almost certainly the John Bainbridge whose London Transport poster I mentioned the other day (and about which more later).

Then there’s this lot.

Beath Winter Number vintage London Transport poster on eBay

Beath vintage London Transport poster Green Line Coach Guide eBay

Beath vintage London Transport Poster March timetable eBay

They’re all by Beath, all from 1936 and they will cost you £49.50 a poster at the moment.  I also think  that they’re all rather good bits of modern typography.

But what pains me is that the descriptions say that they have all three been mounted on canvas.  Now it may just be that they’ve been stored badly (that’ Mr Crownfolio’s theory) but even if that’s so, they’re in pretty poor condition for a mounted poster.  I also can’t see any of the mount around the edges, which is a bit odd.

Now if these were the only examples, I wouldn’t be so bothered.  But it’s happening elsewhere.  The Henrion and Bainbridge posters that I mentioned yesterday also claim to be linen backed.  But the Bainbridge in particular is in even worse condition – take a look at the edges.

HEnrion 1950s London Transport poster as seen on our walls

John Bainbridge 1950s London Transport poster

And again, no edges of linen to be seen.

So what’s going on?  Is there just an outbreak of fibbing on eBay?  Or, more kindly, of sellers who haven’t seen a mounted poster before.  Or is there someone doing cut-price poster mounting and not doing it very well?  Or have I just got the wrong end of the stick altogether?

And finally, this.

Percy Drake Brookshaw

My beef here is with the description:

On offer here is a beautiful original Percy Drake Brookshaw travel poster dating to the mid 20th century circa 1950’s.

Yes, it’s by Percy Drake Brookshaw, yes it’s original.  But no, it is definitely not beautiful.  Just look at it.

They (an eBay based antiques dealer in Chippenham) also want £200 for it, which is a bit steep considering that I distinctly remember it going for about £40-60 at auction earlier this year.

There ought to be large signs all over the relevant bits of eBay, warning people that just because a poster is old, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s valuable.  The same applies to the Beaths above.  £49.95 isn’t as much, but it’s still a lot when you think that we bought a similar (and in fact better because nicely mounted on linen and therefore flat) Beath Winter Number for just £7.99 only last year.

Right, enough complaining.  On the positive side, you could have this smiley chap by Daphne Padden for a mere £4 or so at the moment.

Daphne Padden menu design from eBay

As well as a ton of WW2 posters from this seller.   They’re not the most visually appealing – this is probably the best of the bunch.

nurse WW2 poster from eBay

Once more, they’re not cheap,with opening prices from £50 for this, to £200 for a fairly tatty Norman Wilkinson.  Perhaps I’ll come back to this post next week and see how they all fared.

It’s Easter, don’t move

We seem to own a piece of railwayana, how did that happen?

Wartime Easter travel vintage railway poster

Fortunately, this didn’t end up being as relevant as it might have been this Easter.

But it still has a purpose, as you can also buy its cousin in a few days time in Chertsey.  If that makes its estimate of £150-250, there may be another one coming onto the market quite swiftish.

Railway Executive committee vintage railway poster stay at home holidays

The auctioneers have this down as 1930s, but they’re both published by the Railway Executive Committee, who ran the railways from the start of WW2 in 1939 until nationalisation created British Railways in 1948.  And the ‘don’t travel’ message pretty much has to be wartime, I should think.

By way of completeness, here is a third from the National Railway Museum collections.

Railway Executive Committee vintage WW2 poster

They’re all by Reginald Mayes, who was staff artist for the London Midland and Scottish Railway before the war and so presumably stayed on to produce a wide range of anti-travel and propaganda posters for the Railway Executive Committee.  What’s interesting is that I can’t find any traces of anything he designed for the London Midland, so it looks as if he only started signing things after 1939.  If anyone can tell me any more, please do.

In other auction news, Dreweatts in Bristol are selling a second collection of works by Percy Drake Brookshaw, once again being sold by the family of the artist (I blogged about the first sale in February).  Some are the same posters,

Percy Drake Brookshaw bognor regis vintage poster

and quite a few are in the same style as those in the last sale (i.e. with the colour turned up to 11).

Percy Drake Brookshaw Prestatyn holiday camp vintage poster

But there are also a couple of interesting ones.    This 1958 London Transport poster is rather lovely, and you’d get two copies for an estimated price of £50-70, which seems entirely reasonable to me.

Percy Drake Brookshaw London Transport vintage football excursion poster

Meanwhile the big estimate of £300-400 is on this Summer Shell poster.

Percy Drake Brookshaw Summer Shell vintage poster

The Shell Poster Book tells me that it’s from 1933 (there, incidentally, is an archive that would really benefit the world were it online) so it may well go for more.  Happy shopping.

Matching poster to artist, one local auction at a time…

A few interesting posters are coming up for auction next week at Dreweatt’s Bristol salerooms (if I remember rightly, they’re the ones in the converted church right at the top of Clifton).

Seven lots of posters have come from the family of the artist Percy Drake Brookshaw.  I’d never heard his name before, but this poster is very familiar.

Brookshaw vintage poster Bognor Regis

That’s mainly because it has come round at specialist poster auctions a few times.  It’s a good bit of 50s near-kitch, and so will probably go for rather more than the £60-80 estimate.  And now I know who designed it, so that’s something.

If you follow the above link to the London Transport Museum, you will see that Brookshaw designed some rather wonderful pre-war images for them.  Sadly, the posters that his family saved belong to his rather more whimsical post-war style, like this 1956 eulogy to Torquay.

brookshaw torquay vintage poster auction

The only other image which made me raise an eyebrow was the Post Office poster below.

GPO vintage parcels poster auction

That’s mainly because the more I look, the more of these ‘properly packed parcels please’ posters I discover.  We’ve got four to start with (I don’t quite know why because they are giant 40″ x 30″ Quad Crowns and I don’t think we’ll ever have the wall space for them), and they’re unusually good bits of 60s design.  I’ll blog about them properly one day.

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