Saleroom CLASSIC POSTER AUCTION Vintage seaside posters still in demand BY DAVE SELBY
A speeding, gleaming, teak-hulled runabout scything through azure seas in a shimmer of flying spray: doesn’t this image of sun-drenched carefree hedonism just make you want to visit Scarborough? Well, in 1930 this was how railway company LNER hoped to lure trippers to the Yorkshire resort, with a poster promising visitors all the high-toned glamour of the French Riviera in its Scott Fitzgerald hey-day. In a single concession to the reality of the British summer the lady helm seems to be swaddled in a thick overcoat rather than risqué bathing costume. This 40x50in (102x127cm) lithographic poster fetched £2,125 at Christie’s most recent vintage poster auction in London, its price boosted by the deservedly high reputation of British artist Frank Newbould. Yet at the same auction you could have bought another very pleasing promotional poster for Cornwall for a relatively modest £750. Indeed, if you’re looking for posters with a maritime flavour, British resort posters can represent great value, certainly by comparison with the auction’s highest-priced poster, a 1931 advert for the Night Scotsman that made £34,850.
In the same auction a glorious 1937 poster for Juan les Pins that made the French resort look almost as glamourous as Scarborough fetched £4,375. OK, that’s a lot more than a holiday, but so evocative and uplifting is the image that one glance would
Above: a poster promising visitors to Scarborough all the high-toned glamour of the French Riviera sold for £2,125
Far left: 1937 poster for Juan les Pins fetched £4,375. Left: British artist Frank Newbould’s Great Western Railway poster for Cornwall made £750.
have you donning Ray Bans and Ambre-Solaire whenever you walked past it on your living room wall. Of all maritime-related poster images, those depicting the golden days of ocean liner travel are the most prized. One of the most striking in this auction was a Cunard poster that fetched £5,625. Cunard Line memorabilia has a strong following and this poster’s classic Deco graphic image by a noted artist (Alexey Brodovitch) also invigorated value. The top maritime-related lot in the auction was a 1936 Italian Line poster by one of the very greatest of all poster artists, Adolphe Mouron Cassandre. With three stylised liners steaming on the edge of a globe this classic of the late Deco period commanded £9,375. Cassandre posters have made considerably more – there are signs of a slight easing off in the market. Christie’s next London auction of
Vintage and Travel Posters is on November 14 (
www.christies.com).
CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2011 25
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