Apologies about the delay between broadcasts, my computer had some kind of nervous breakdown and had to be sent away to a sanatorium for a few days. Pleasingly, it is now back and recovered, which means that together it and I can get stuck into the vast heap of auctions which are coming up in the next month or so.
First – and it rather has to be given that the sale is on Saturday – is the GCR Autumn Auction. Which isn’t as exciting as their auctions have been, as it mostly consists of a lot of quite standard railway posters.
Harry Riley, est. £150-300
Interspersed with pictures of trains.
Wolstenholme, est. £150-300
And the odd piece of unashamed naffness.
Anon, est. £50-80
Scattered amongst all of this, however, are a few items of interest. To start with, there are several posters for That Abroad, but unusually these are ones issued by British railway companies.
Having lived in Copenhagen for a few years, these two Frank Masons have an inevitable sentimental appeal.
Frank Mason, est. £150-300
Frank Mason, est. £150-300
While this one for France is simply rather good.
Clodagh Sparrow, 1948, est. £100-200
I know nothing at all about Clodagh Sparrow, and the internet can’t tell me much either. She apparently did some number of designs for the LMS in the 1930s, and a couple for London Transport too. So if anyone knows any more than this, I’d love to hear.
But anyway, back to the main event. There are a couple of posters in the auction I quite like.
Beaven, has to be 1950s, est. £100-200
A J Wilson, est. £100-200
In the case of the second one, that’s probably as much due to the lettering as anything else.
Also of interest, simply because it’s not the kind of thing that comes up very often, is this holiday brochures poster.
Cusden, est. £80-120
Although I am intrigued as to why, of all the posters in the world, someone has chosen to mount this one on linen.
The auction also includes a random ATS poster.
Anon, est. £100-200
It’s not my favourite wartime poster ever – there are better ATS ones if I am honest – but I mention this because the next upcoming railwayana auction (GWR, in November if you want an advance peek) also has some World War Two posters included, so this may be a recurring theme. Equally of course it could just be coincidence.
Finally, there is one London Transport poster, which is by John Bainbridge and is the best thing in the whole sale.
John Bainbridge, 1956, est. £80-120
I’ve promised a post about him one of these days, and I really must do that as he is a sorely under-rated artist. But that will have to wait, as my next post will almost certainly have to cover a few more auctions.
A nice cross section coming up at Cheffins Fine Art Sale – 23 Oct. I particularly liked the 2 French Lottery designs. Your expert eye may well light on something else!
Yes thank you – there’s a bit of time until that auction, so I will get round to it in due course.
While I am here, I might as well also report that the GCR auction prices went pretty much according to estimate, although you can still buy the Holiday Guides one if you want…