Worth it in the long run

I am rushing in just to tell you about Great Central Railwayana.  I’ve had the catalogue for ages, and been meaning to write about it for ages, and now, suddenly, the auction is this Saturday.  I blame the builders.

Once again, there are a good selection of posters on offer, ten times the number that you’d find at a railwayana auction even a few years ago, but I’m finding it hard to get overly excited about them as they mostly consist of the usual suspects, like Terence Cuneo.

Terence Cuneo, 1950.

And nice pictures of landscapes from the 1950s, there are lots of those.

Gyrth Russell, 1955.

Although as seaside posters go, this one is quite special.

Henry Stringer, 1955.

While this bit of Dorset coast is an unusual departure from Alan Durman’s usual subject matter and style, but rather good with it.

And, after his star turn at the Great Northern Auction, they’ve also dug out another unusual Lander which I quite like.

R. M. Lander, 1955.

I also like this poster, although for no particular reason that I can articulate.

John Greene, 1955.

It’s green, will that do?  As is this one.

S. R. Badmin, 1950.

There is another Badmin coach poster lurking in there too, which might end up being a bit of a bargain, as coach posters often are at railway auctions.

There on the other hand, it might not.

But if you want good design, this Karo has to be the best poster in the sale by a long chalk.  It will be interesting to see what it goes for.

Also on my favourites list is this Kelly, which I’ve written about before.

Kelly, 1955.

Its (even better) pair was up in the Great Northern sale a couple of weeks ago.

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention it.  But sadly we were outbid, quite considerably.  Hey ho.  Prices were generally quite high there, especially considering that it’s a brand new sale, but that’s a subject I’ll come back to next week.

But if you really want good design, the best example in the sale isn’t actually a poster.  It’s this.

That’s Hans Schleger’s design work for London Transport there, from 1957, and very good it is too.