Strong graphics make any poster appealing to collectors. A Last Chance by LiveAuctioneers online auction on May 21 includes several dozen posters, mostly from the first half of the 20th century. Here are five that will surely attract attention:
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Jekyll and Hyde
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One of the earliest examples in the sale is this 1880s original poster for the stage production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The play based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson opened in Boston in 1887 and went on to tour Britain and run for 20 years. English actor Richard Mansfield had read Stevenson’s novella and was immediately attracted to the idea of adapting it for the stage. Mansfield secured permission for stage rights and turned to Thomas Russell Sullivan, a writer friend from Boston, to create the script. Mansfield continued playing the dual role until his death in 1907.
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Harold Lloyd talkie
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Silent movie fans instantly recognize the bespectacled face of comic actor Harold Lloyd. However, Lloyd’s Hollywood career extended well into “talkies,” and as this Swedish poster for The Cat’s Paw (1934) illustrates, his movies were popular internationally. The text translates to: “everything new except these,” meaning his trademark horn rims. The Cat’s Paw, a “Capraesque” comedy based on a novel by Clarence Budington Kelland and published in The Saturday Evening Post, represents a departure for Lloyd from his clock-hanging stunts of the silent era.
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‘Harlem on the Prairie’
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Another Hollywood curio is the 1937 movie titled Harlem on the Prairie, a so-called race movie intended for black audiences. It starred Herb Jeffries, a singing cowboy hero in the mold of Gene Autry. The movie reminded audiences that there were black cowboys and corrected a popular Hollywood image of an all-white Old West.
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Santa Fe Railroad
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Continuing on the Western trail is a Sante Fe Railroad poster by Hernando Villa. Hernando Gonzallo Villa (1881-1952) was a commercial artist and painter, best known for his work for the Santa Fe Railroad. His work for the company spanned 40 years, and included designing the Santa Fe Chief emblem. Adept with oil, watercolor, pastel and charcoal, Villa produced scenes of the Old West, Indians, missions and the Mexican vaqueros.
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Japan’s Queen of the Sea
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First-class transoceanic travel was not exclusive to the great passenger ships of Europe and the United States sailing the Atlantic. The Japanese ocean liner Asama Maru, launched in 1929, offered trans-Pacific Orient to California service and was characterized as “The Queen of the Sea.” She was a twin of the Tatsuma Maru and owned by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha line. Converted to troopships for the Imperial Japanese Navy, both were sunk by U.S. Navy submarines during World War II.
This framed poster was likely a travel agency display piece. The original artwork was by British commercial artist Harry Huddson Rodmell (1896-1984). He produced work for many of the major shipping lines including P&O, Canadian Pacific and the British India Line.
