Vintage

Year: ca. 1933

Size: 25 x 40 in./63.5 x 101.5 cm

Condition: A-/ slight loss at lower right corner

This shipping company was a 1933 incorporation of two disparate companies: the Aberdeen Line, founded in 1825, and the Australian Commonwealth line, founded in 1916. In 1933, the two were purchased by the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line and merged into one. Here, we catch a glimpse of tropical palm trees as one of their steamships cruises through the Suez Canal.

Year: 1894

Size: 24 1/4 x 32 1/4 inches

Condition: B+/ Slight tears at horizontal fold

In your face! Mademoiselle de l'Affiche thrusts her brush into the nose of a stunned Pierrot in a grand assertion of artistic control. The poster announces that the artist, Léon Dardenne, will now be solely in charge of all posters produced by the Bulens printing firm. An audacious design for its time, and for ours as well.

Size: 15 1/4 x 22 1/8 in./38.8 x 56.4 cm

Condition: B / Slight tears and stains, largely at edges. Framed.

Geo Ham is always the master of motion, and here the air is alive with a biplane in an inverted corkscrew dive while monoplanes take on severe G-forces as they race around the course at St-Germain.

Year: 1898

Size: 20 x 30 inches

Condition: A

An Artist's Model was a two-act musical comedy written on the heels of the composer's much-heralded A Gaiety Girl from two years prior. Its plot focuses on a former nude model who, now a widowed millionairess, returns to the studio to pursue her lost artist love. He in turn only takes interest in her once she is engaged to an English nobleman. This is the smaller format version of the design.

Year: 1928

Size: 30 1/2 x 46 5/8 inches

Condition: A. FRAMED

In all of his posters, Dupas presents highly stylized, fashionable people in idealized and extravagant settings. Here, he gives us a look at the past, present, and future fashions of Arnold Constable. The department store was at one point the oldest in America, operating for 150 years from 1825-1975. It was known to be a destination for the elite, and its clientele included the wives of Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Year: 1924

Size: 77 1/8 x 54 1/8 inches

Condition: B+ / slight tears at folds and edges

"Squaawk! Polly wants her summer fashions!" Vincent's many posters for the Paris department store Au Bon Marché constitute a magnificent pageant of "where fashion sits, puttin' on the Ritz" during the Roaring '20s; this two-sheet poster is surely the most carnivalesque of them all.

Year: ca. 1901

Size: 42 1/4 x 58 inches

Condition: A-/ Unobtrusive folds

In operation from 1901 to 1947, Corre was a French automobile manufacturer known primarily by its logo "La Licorne"—The Unicorn. To increase sales in the early days of the company, they enlisted in racing competitions to notable success. The driver seen here is likely Joseph Collomb, who drove the C1 model throughout 20 years of racing for Corre and won first place at several competitions, including the 1908 Coupe de l'Anjou and the 1912 Tour de France Automobile.

Year: 1938

Size: 34 7/8 x 49 7/8 inches

Condition: A- / stains in margins.

Barbisio hats have been produced in the Biella Valley since 1862, but there’s nothing traditional about this design—in fact, it still feels sharply contemporary today. The exclamation points—outfitted with felt hats, canes, and a boutonniere—appear as though they might just dance right out of the frame with jazzy bravado. This particular version of the design advertises availability at a Lucerne dealer. Mingozzi was an active Bolognese designer who ran his own studio as well as an advertising agency named Alta. Rare!

Size: 41 5/8 x 60 7/8 inches

Condition: B+ / Slight tears at folds.

A stunning lady in an exotic setting applies Bengaline paint to make the point that the product is used everywhere. Of course, even in the most remote lands, no one would be dressed in an opulent gown for house-painting, but seeing what it does for her allure, we'll gladly support the artist's license. Gaspar Camps was a Spanish graphic artist who was inspired by Mucha to the extent that he simply imitated him for a time; eventually he moved to Paris and produced posters with a Byzantine flavor.

Year: ca. 1905

Size: 12 7/8 x 27 inches

Condition: A. FRAMED

This stunning panel, printed on silk, was used to promote the fine craftsmanship of the Champenois printing company. It could not have failed to impress—either then or now—as the many fine gradations of white in the flowers and in the gauzy dress shimmer and shine as the light hits them. Artistically, the style reflects the interest in Japonisme at the time; prints like these were frequently deployed as gifts to preferred clients. That blooming affection is meant to be felt, not just seen.

Year: 1897

Size: 24 x 39 3/4 in./61 x 101 cm

Condition: B / Slight tears and stains at edges.

Sandreuter created this design for his closest mentor and friend, Arnold Böcklin, on the occasion of his anniversary exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. Both men were Swiss artists of the symbolist and fin de siècle movements—"... possessed of a certain fund of romantic lyricism, sometimes allying itself to that passion for the grotesque which is perhaps one of the distinctive characteristics of the German-Swiss mind" (The Studio, Vol. 23, p. 219). They met in Munich in 1873, and later worked in Florence and Paris together. Böcklin's influence on Sandreuter was so strong that critics accused Sandreuter of being a lifelong imitator of his mentor—but Böcklin didn't seem to mind, and even cared for his pupil when he fell ill with diabetes.

Year: 1894

Size: 24 5/8 x 37 1/2 inches

Condition: B / stains at edges

Alas, no one seems to have found it consequential enough to record the melodramatic goings-on during the run of Mam'zelle Carabin at the Bouffes-Parisiens. It seems to have been an operatic evening filled with teary-eyed reconciliation, dastardly deeds, and a high-spirited international costume fête whose title translates—somewhat surprisingly, given the poster's vignettes—to Miss Medic. This is actually one of two posters Pal created for the play that were surely just what the doctor ordered. Rare!

Year: ca. 1985

Size: 25 x 39 inches

Condition: A- / half-inch tear at top edge. Paper

Year: 1928

Size: 32 3/4 x 47 in./83.3 x 119.2 cm

Condition: A/ FRAMED

Tucked away in a small town outside of Munich, the Café Bittmann in Höllriegelskreuth commissioned a fantastic poster to attract local rail commuters. From the Cubist still life on the table to the lady's perfectly coifed outfit, Knab and Koch's tantalizing image surely did the trick. The two formed a graphic design studio in 1921.

Year: 1906

Size: 45 1/4 x 63 7/8 inches

Condition: B+/ Slight tears at folds.

World expositions were a popular way for European countries to show off their colonies and bring the exoticism of distant lands straight to the people. As part of French Indochina, Cambodia was a French protectorate from 1863-1953. The exhibition in Marseille was France's third colonial exhibition and attracted over 1,800,000 visitors. Here, a Cambodian dancer in traditional attire welcomes guests to their pavilion which resembles the temple of Angkor Wat—a Hindu temple complex that is the largest religious monument in the world.

Size: 43 1/4 x 59 1/2 inches

Condition: B / slight tears at folds and edges

A dramatic scene unfolds as Carmen sacrifices herself for her city of Santiago in this novel by Rodolphe Bringer. While the French journalist, newspaper editor, and writer of crime novels and children's books was quite prolific, no information exists on this particular endeavor—aside from Pal's visual relic.

Year: ca. 1903

Size: 29 3/8 x 41 1/4 in./74.6 x 105 cm

Condition: B / slight tears at folds and corners

A whirlwind of posters, placards, handbills, and postcards celebrates the art of printing—and specifically that of Albert Bergeret. Prouvé had painted their family portrait the previous year, and Bergeret returned to him for this promotion. At the beginning of the 20th century, A. Bergeret & Cie. was already an internationally renowned company that specialized in collotype work and fantastical postcards. By 1903, they produced 75 million cards, as well as tourist albums, brochures, and other publications. This poster is signed “d'après Prouvé.”