STOURPAINE, U.K. – Onslow Auctioneers will hold its 38th winter auction of vintage posters on Friday, November 25. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers. Top lots include a trio of extremely rare posters by the great master Leonetto Cappiello and an exceptionally scarce World War II-era poster that has gained the nickname the “Blonde Bombshell.”
The posters by Leonetto Cappiello (Italian and French, 1875-1942) come to auction after having been recently discovered in the attic of a stately home in England. They had been purchased in Paris in the 1970s but were never displayed and were ultimately forgotten.
Each features stunning, scantily clad nymphs advertising drink and food. They are in wonderful untouched original condition and will restore beautifully – the colors are as fresh as the day they came off of the lithograph presses in Paris. Each has been individually assigned the conservative estimate of £400-£600.
Another exciting discovery is the uber-scarce British World War II propaganda poster known worldwide as the “Blonde Bombshell.” This was the first of three posters designed by Abram Games to promote joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). Deemed to be overly glamorous and therefore provocative, the government banned this poster after its issue in 1941 and replaced it with a plain photographic poster depicting a serving member of the ATS. But the second design, which arrived in 1942, faced unique challenges of its own; it was considered “too Soviet” by Winston Churchill. The third version appeared in 1943 and employed a statuesque yet sober style that passed muster with the powers that be.
Onslows sold a copy of the Blonde Bombshell poster twice before, first in 1989 for £3,000 – a huge price at the time. The poster was consigned by the artist, who attended the auction with the model he relied on for its design and who was also his wartime sweetheart. After the auction, both the artist and the model signed the poster for the winning bidder, who hailed from the United States.
The second copy of the poster handled by Onslows was offered in July 2019, achieving £9,000 and going home with an English collector. Onslows officials believe this particular copy will sell for more than £10,000, although they assigned it a relatively modest estimate of £5,000-£6,000. The consignor’s mother joined the ATS at the beginning of World War II and rose to the rank of senior commander (Signals). His father joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) before the war began and served as a ship’s chaplain until 1946; the two married in 1941. The consigner’s father was an inveterate collector of everything and would have been very amused by the poster, having married his own blonde bombshell.
J.S. Anderson, ‘You Can Be Sure of Shell / Motorists Prefer Shell’ poster from 1935, estimated at £4,000-£5,000
Another British poster of note that has earned a place in the November 25 auction lineup is J.S. Anderson’s You Can Be Sure of Shell / Motorists Prefer Shell, estimated at £4,000-£5,000.
Giovanni Guirrini poster for the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, estimated at £600-£800
The Continental poster selection includes standouts such as Pneu Continental, Michel Liebeaux’s circa-1908 poster for Continental Tyre Co., estimated at £1,000-£1,500; and Giovanni Guirrini’s poster for the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, estimated at £600-£800.
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The current rate of exchange is £1 = $1.19.
View top auction results on LiveAuctioneers here: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/pages/recent-auction-sales/
