Travel to Bloomsbury Auctions’ poster sale Nov. 12
‘Bermuda Every Friday’ – that’s a hot ticket. Adolph Triedler’s poster for Grace Lines dates to the early 1930s. Measuring 40 inches by 24 inches, the color lithograph has a $2,800-$3,200 estimate. Image courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions.
NEW YORK – While last winter’s vacation to a faraway land is a fleeting memory, the images in Bloomsbury Auctions’ Vintage & Modern Posters sale Nov. 12 are as clear and vivid as they were the day they were hung in the travel agent’s office. Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale will consist of more than 150 posters, many of which will be travel related. The auction will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
As posters became a less popular form of advertising after the advent of film and radio in the 1920s, posters postdating these events have become exceedingly scarce. Bloomsbury’s sale features a plethora of posters from the 1930s onward.
A unique highlight in the sale is a collection of eight posters promoting travel to Bermuda. Grace Line, a Furness Cruises division, and the Island of Bermuda brought on artists to create these spectacular, and now, nostalgic images from the 1930s through the 1960s. Vintage posters promoting Bermuda are hard to find in the market, and this group of eight features rare posters from the 1930s.
Another notable collector’s item for sale is a poster depicting a stylized airplane emerging through French-shaped clouds – an advertisement for Air France by Francois Charles Cachoud, titled Le Mont Blanc. The color lithograph has a $600-$1,000 estimate.
Travel posters by KLM, Pan American, and several other airlines are also included in the sale. Alongside these items will be posters by Cunard and Pacific Lines, which represent a bygone form of travel, transoceanic cruising.
The vintage automobile posters section will illustrate the evolution of the car over the last 100 years with posters depicting early examples of Peugeot, Clement, de Dion-Bouton and Michelin tires among other brands.
A highlight in the rail travel section is a 1946 color lithograph advertising the New York Central System. It has a $1,000-1,500 estimate.
The highest estimate in the sale goes to lot 144, a poster by Toulouse-Lautrec titled Catalogue d’Affiches Artistiques. The 10- by 15-inch poster has a $30,000-35,000 estimate. An 1894 color lithograph by Jules Cheret, Palais de Glace, Champs-Elysee, 93 by 35 inches, has an $8,000-$12,000 estimate.
Bloomsbury Auctions, the leading auction house for rare books and works on paper, is headquartered in London with salerooms in New York and Rome. The New York saleroom is at 6 W. 48th St.
For details phone 212-719-1000.
View a fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet during the sale at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
The theme of Clarence Coles Phillips’ poster for the U.S. Fuel Administration is evergreen. The color lithograph, 28 inches by 20 inches, has a $1,000-$2,000 estimate. Image courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions.
Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1896 poster titled ‘Catalogue d’ Affiches Artistiques’ carries a $30,000-$35,000 estimate. The framed poster is 10 1/2 by 14 inches. Image courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions.
The Pennsylvania Railroad transported tourists to Atlantic City in comfort. Edward M. Eggelston’s color lithograph, 40 inches by 25 inches, has an $8,000-$12,000 estimate. Image courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions.
Jules Cheret’s poster ‘Palais de Glace, Champs-Elysees’ measures a towering 93 inches high by 35 inches. The 1894 color lithograph has an $8,000-$12,000 estimate. Image courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions.
