posters

Rare Houdini Poster Up For Auction

Filed under: Auctions

Vintage magic posters can be highly collectible and of course, the most famous musician, Houdini, often brings in the biggest returns. A rare Houdini poster, which is one of only five such posters known to exist, is going up for sale at a Potter & Potter Auctions in Chicago on March 26. The poster is one of more than 100 rare and valuable vintage magic posters which were discovered in a suburban Chicago home last year. Many of the poster swere purchased in the 1970s when they could still be bought fairly inexpensively.

The Houdini poster shows the legendary magician in handcuffs in front of a judge and jury in Germany. It represents a famous case in 1902 when Houdini was called a fraud by a German police officer. He sued for slander and won. Being a savvy self-promoter, he created the poster to dramatize the event and add to his fame. It is estimated at $15,000-$20,000. Also featured is a rare rare eight-sheet (7 feet x 9 feet) billboard advertising The Great Nicola. The huge poster is estimated at $2,500-$3,500. Many other posters in the sale can be had for just several hundred dollars. For more details visit www.potterauctions.com.

[via Auction Central News]

Tags: houdini, posters, vintage posters

Swann Galleries Vintage Posters Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Swann Galleries has announced that its average annual summer auction of Vintage Posters will be held on August 4 in New York City. The auction offers fine selections of summer resort and beach posters, World War I and II and other propaganda posters and Mather Work Incentive posters. There are also posters advertising tourism to Bermuda, ocean liner and airline posters, Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company posters and some lovely Art Deco works.

Most of the works are estimated to sell for several hundred to a few thousand dollars making them an affordable way to invest in artwork. The posters are also an interesting anthropological study giving clues into the concerns and delights of past generations. The Mather Work posters Incentive were created in Chicago in the late 1920s to boost employee productivity and safety. Some of the summer resort images featuring idyllic seaside scenes would be great artwork for a beach house or a summer home. The posters will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries starting July 30 and an illustrated auction catalogue is available for $35. Shown at right is N.C. Wyeth's work for the Pennsylvania Rail Road, circa 1929. It is estimated to sell for $1,500-2,000.

Tags: art, collectibles, collecting, collection, posters, swann galleries, vintage posters, vintage travel posters

Spike Lee to Sign "Design for Obama" at Taschen Store New York

by Deb West (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art, Books, Celebrity Design

It is hard to believe that it is already the first anniversary of Barack Obama's election as the first African-American President of the United States. In honor of this historic occasion Taschen books New York is holding a book signing to celebrate the publication of Design for Obama. Posters for Change: A Grassroots Anthology. Taschen a publishing house originally started in Cologne, Germany 1980 by 18 year-old Benedikt Taschen, who found himself with a huge collection of comic books, has become renowned for being the premier international publisher of stunning art books.

Unbeknown to many, hundreds of artists and designers supported Obama's campaign in an unusual way, with their talent at DesignforObama.org founded by one of the books editors Aaron Perry-Zucker. This web-site built upon the concept of volunteerism during a history making campaign provided an online forum where artworks could be uploaded and downloaded for free.

Filmaker Spike Lee and Aaron Perry-Zucker chose the best of the submissions and have compiled them into a book commemorating the 44th President and the artistic creativity that helped him win the historic election last fall. In addition to curating the artwork in the book, Lee, Perry-Zucker and design historian Steven Heller wrote essays to complement this collection of over 200 pro-Obama posters designed by everybody from renowned graphic artists to those who practice their art on the streets of our cities.

If you want to have your copy personally signed by the editors head to Taschen's New York SoHo location where the editors including Spike Lee will be on hand on November 4th, 2009 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Tags: books, bookstore, election, graphic artists, GraphicArtists, Obama, posters, Spike Lee, SpikeLee

Rare Moulin Rouge Poster Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Fans of Art Nouveau may want to check out this one, Swann Galleries in New York is holding an auction of rare and important Art Nouveau posters on December 17. The highlights include 11 posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and seven by Alphonse Mucha. The posters are from the collection of Bob and Peggy Marcus, who assembled their collection over the course of 30 years. The auction's top lot is a copy of Lautrec's Moulin Rouge, La Goulue, 1891, the artist's first poster, in the very rare three-sheet version, and with the original top banner. Considered one of the most important posters in the history of graphic arts, the enormous color lithograph advertises a performance by can-can dancer La Goulue at the famous cabaret. When the poster was first released, dealers found the size unmanageable and discarded the top banner, making versions with the original top virtually unavailable. The provenance goes back to Lautrec's own estate, after which it passed on to his close friend, art dealer Maurice Joyant, and then descended to his heirs. It is estimated at $250,000 to $350,000.

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Tags: alphonse mucha, AlphonseMucha, art, art nouveau, ArtNouveau, mucha, posters, toulouse-lautrec