Interest from European and American collectors and dealers was particularly noticeable in Bloomsbury’s recent Posters sale on 28th May.
Transport and sport played a big part in the auction; luxury travel of the 1920s was especially popular and The Golden Arrow, Cie Wagons Lits by WS Bylityilis (lot 12) made a very healthy £1330 double the lower estimate. The simple yet powerful designs and flat bright colours of Roger Broders fared well, Chamonix Mt Blanc, PLM of 1930 (lot 48)with men playing ice hockey against the background of Mont Blanc, fetched £6000 comfortably over its estimate. Broders’ La Corne d’Or (lot 57) of the same period made £2700 just over estimate. One of the highlights of the sale was lot 75 Grand-Sport, La Casquette by Cassandre of 1931 which reached £12,200. A handsome poster for polo, entitled Sports by Ludwig Hohlwein (lot 104) went for £1320 just over estimate. Understandably the Olympics are at the forefront at the moment and posters of this subject did well such as the 1924 Paris Olympic Games by Jean Droit (lot 87) which fetched £2400 while VII Olympiad, Antwerp of 1920 by Kuyck (lot 145) made £1440 just over the higher estimate.
Less glamorous and exotic, but nonetheless sought after, were the tram advertisements (almost all of which sold) and British seaside holiday destinations; for example the very rare East Coast Joys, LNER by Tom Purvis was snapped up for £1020 over double the estimate and East Season Tickets on the LNER by Henry Mayo Bateman (lot 111), went for £780 (estimate £500-700).
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