Vintage Posters to be Sold at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury have drawn together a fascinating selection of vintage posters to be auctioned on 1 December at Bloomsbury House, 24 Maddox Street, London. The posters encompass many of the most sought after examples and artists from the genres of film, work and travel. These graphic images were designed to attract attention, create desire and entice the target audience into action.  Estimates range from £100 - £7,000.

Of particular interest is a very rare group featuring 22 lots specific to London, many created by Parisian artist Andre Edouard Marty. Marty was commissioned to create a series of posters for the inside of London Underground carriages featuring key London attractions such as Wimbledon tennis (Lot 686, Est: £3,000-5,000), The Boat Race (Lot 689, Est: £1,500-1,800), The Wembley Cup Final (Lot 688, Est £1,800-2,200) as well as the Motor show at Olympia (Lot 685, Est: £1,200-1,600). Another interesting aspect to the London Underground posters is how things have changed as seen with a trolleybus and tram map from 1937 (Lot 663, Est £100-200) which cites “speed” on a London Tramway at an average of 9 ½ mph - faster than today! These highly collectable posters were created by Barnet Freedman and were made to lure the general public to places of interest including London Zoo (Lot 671, Est: £150-250), Tate galleries (Lot 666, Est: £150-250) and the theatre (Lot 673, Est: £300-500).

Also of note is an excellent selection of Vintage film posters featuring many of the classics that would make excellent Christmas presents. Originally film posters were the main marketing tool of the film industry and were sent together with the newly released film to premier in cinemas worldwide. Studios quickly learnt that the forms and faces of certain stars was all a poster really needed to sell tickets. Commercial success lay in the star power, so that posters were illustrated with the potent images of Humphrey Bogart, Steve McQueen, James Dean and Grace Kelly to name but a few.