Mammoth sale

Right, in my attempt to keep on top of things, a quick scamper through the forthcoming Swann Galleries auction.  Which is tomorrow, so you’d better be quick if you actually want to buy any of them.  Me, I’m just window-shopping, especially at these prices.

All the prices are high, but then that’s a posh auction in America for you, but the one I slightly take exception to is this.

EDWARD MCKNIGHT KAUFFER (1890-1954) ENO'S "FRUIT SALT." 1924.
McKnight Kauffer, 1924, est. $1,500 – 2000

But that’s only because we sold one at the last Onslows sale, and it went for £230, which seemed quite reasonable at the time.  And it was backed on linen too.

Kauffer is also represented by this rather magnificent Art Deco mammoth (now there’s a phrase I never thought I’d have recourse to).

EDWARD MCKNIGHT KAUFFER (1890-1954) MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 1923
McKnight Kauffer, 1924, est. $2,000 – 3,000

There are a few other London Transport posters in there, like this rather splendid Zero.

ZERO (HANS SCHLEGER, 1898-1976) SERVICE. 1935
Zero, 1935, est $800 – 1,200

Although I do end up wondering whether I’d ever put that up on the wall.  Maybe if I were a museum.

There is this rather lovely pair of Barnett Freedmans too.

BARNETT FREEDMAN (1901-1958) THEATRE / GO BY UNDERGROUND. Two posters. 1936

BARNETT FREEDMAN (1901-1958) THEATRE / GO BY UNDERGROUND. Two posters. 1936
Barnett Freedman, 1936, est. $700 – 1,000 the pair

Of more interest to me are these two Orient line posters, mainly because I wrote about the first one a while back.

RICHARD BECK (DATES UNKNOWN) ORIENT LINE CRUISES. 1937.
Richard Beck, 1937, est $600 – 900

REIMANN STUDIOS & KRABER (JOHN ROWLAND BARKER, 1911-1959) CRUISE BY ORIENT LINE. Circa 1937
Reimann Studios and Kraber, 1937, est. $600 – 900

The second one is at least partly by Kraber, whose work I keep discovering and each time I say that I will find out more about him.  I must make good on this promise one of these days, because every single design I come across by him is great.  This is no exception, and I would happily put that poster on the wall if someone would like to buy it for me.

This, being an early airline map by Moholy Nagy, ought to be interesting.

REIMANN STUDIOS & KRABER (JOHN ROWLAND BARKER, 1911-1959) CRUISE BY ORIENT LINE. Circa 1937
Moholy-Nagy, 1936, est. $10,000 – 15,000

But it just isn’t, is it.  The price suggests that other people might not agree with me though.

And finally, as is customary with these sales where there are just a handful of British posters, a dip into the furrin.  This is a Savignac rough design that I just like.

RAYMOND SAVIGNAC (1907-2002) MA COLLE. Gouache maquette. Circa 1951
Savignac, 1951, est $3,000 – 4,000

But this is much more interesting.

RAYMOND SAVIGNAC (1907-2002) TASTEE BREAD / BAKED WHILE YOU SLEEP. Group of 39 gouache studies. Circa 1950s.

 

RAYMOND SAVIGNAC (1907-2002) TASTEE BREAD / BAKED WHILE YOU SLEEP. Group of 39 gouache studies. Circa 1950s.

 

Savignac, 1950s, est. $800 – 1,200

These are two designs from a set of 39 roughs, which Savignac clearly did for a British firm.  Now I did know that he and Colin, amongst others, had worked over here, but evidence of it doesn’t come up often enough if you ask me.

  • Savignac in Britain?

    Easy. I noticed that he is listed in the Artists’ Partners documentation. In their second brochure at least.
    They seem to have had a few “continental” designers on their books. To add a bit of sophistication.

    I think that first contact probably came through AGI membership. Coleman Prentice and Varley were an agency that used these designers for posters in the early 1950s – Gruau, Elfers and Francois at least.
    Jack Beddington (Shell and MOI) was also briefly at CPV, but probably more interested in film and TV by then.
    P

  • Yes that AP brochure is the only real bit of evidence I have so far, although I suspect there might be more in Modern Publicity and so on if I did a really thorough trawl.

  • I thought that something about one of the Taystee Bread ads looked a bit unusual for the UK, so I did a quick search on the internet. The Taystee Bread Co was once the largest USA baker, apparently, but I couldn’t trace anything to show it operated in the UK. Not conclusive, of course, but these may not be evidence for Savignac working in the UK. Sorry.

    N

  • Yes, Taystee bread was a famous US brand – and ‘Baked While You Sleep’ was a common strapline used by the company. Savignac also designed some witty posters for Life magazine around the same time. Here is one in MoMA’s collection: http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=7467
    Regarding the McKnight Kauffer Natural History museum poster – Walter Shaw Sparrow (‘Advertising & British Art’, 1924) claimed: “It represents a mammoth silhouetted against a dawn, a spectrum dawn, and flanked by segments of a circle suggesting the globe of the world and its movements through illimitable time” – so there you go!

  • Ah, right. Back to the drawing board for UK Savignac then. Never mind.

    Thank you also for the mammoth text . A spectrum dawn indeed.

  • Hi I’m great fan of Kauffer posters and have a small collection which cost me a small fortune.
    I’m taken to them because of the vibrant colours and the shapes he uses in his art, truly amazing talent. There is a lovely collection at the London transport museum featuring over 160 vintage posters. My favourites are Whitsuntide in the country and Uxbridge by tram. Thanks for your time in posting this. Kindest regards Stuart

  • I bet they did, he doesn’t come cheap, especially these days. Lucky you.

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