Vintage Posters at Potter & Potter August 20
Chicago — Potter & Potter Auctions is pleased to announce this 700+ lot sale to be held on Saturday, August 20th starting at 10am CDT. The event will be held online and live streamed, with a limited number of bidders physically allowed in the gallery as determined by current Illinois public health attendance guidelines. Please call the auction house, located at 5001 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago, at 773-472-1442 to reserve seats, with first come, first served. Bidding will take place through Potter & Potter's website, at www.potterauctions.com. Phone and absentee bids are also welcome.
Beautifully rendered antique posters featuring images of places and things of yesteryear take many of the top lot slots in this can't miss sale.
- Lot #663, Manuel Orazi's (1860-1934) L’Hippodrome, is estimated at $3,000-5,000. This framed and glazed lithograph is 92 x 61-½” and was printed in 1905 in Paris by Societe d’Impressions d’Art Industriel. It features an equestrienne in an Art Nouveau jade and gilt dress and headpiece charging at the viewer on a black horse, with others on the track following behind.
- Lot #480, Summer Meeting / The Fifth Heat, is estimated at $800-1,200. This rare, early linen backed horse racing poster was printed at the turn of last century in Cleveland by W.J. Morgan Co. It measures 22-½ x 28” and pictures bystanders on the sidelines and grandstands wildly cheering on jockeys and thoroughbreds in a harness race.
- Lot #677, G.C. Parker's The June Bookman, is estimated at $600-900. This 19 x 13” linen backed poster was published in New York in 1902 and advertises the June issue of the literary magazine published by Dodd, Mead and Company. Its first editor was Harry Thurston Peck (1856-1914), who introduced the first bestseller list in America.
Posters featuring premier transport and travel destinations are also hot tickets in this auction.
- Lot #301, Joseph Feher's (1908-1987) Hawaii / United Air Lines, is estimated at $2,000-3,000. This linen backed, midcentury masterpiece measures 39 x 24” and features a hula dancer standing larger than life on one of the Hawaiian islands, surrounded by fish and plants, men and women on surfboards and outriggers, and a United Boeing Stratocruiser flying overhead.
- Lot #344, G. Tait's Kedarnath / See India, is estimated at $1,500-2,500. This color, linen backed lithograph tourism poster was published in the 1930s in Bombay by Bolton Fine Art Offset Litho. It pictures the Kedarnath Temple, in the Himalayas, near one of the tributaries of the sacred Ganges River. The temple is located at a high altitude, inaccessible by road and closed during the winter months. This poster measures 37 x 23-5/8”.
- Lot #47, Main Street Limousine / Arrive in Style, is estimated at $1,500-3,000. This 47 x 33” example was produced in 1992 by Walt Disney Imagineering and was created by John Hull, Eddie Sotto, and Louis Lemoine for the opening of Euro Disneyland.
- Lot #296, Alexander S. Macleod's (1888-1956) A Map of Honolulu and the Sandwich Islands which we now call the Hawaiian Islands, is estimated at $1,200-1,800. It was published in 1927 in New York by Henry M. Snyder. This 28-½ x 37” piece features a map of Honolulu, with an inset of the islands and additional vignettes in the border, depicting “in pictorial fashion the history, landmarks, & customs of these colorful isles.” This lot includes its rare pictorial envelope.
- Lot #261, Gaston Van den Eynde's Sabena / Boeing Jet Intercontinental, is estimated at $600-900. It was published in the Belgian city of Courtrai by Andre Beyaert around 1960. This 39 x 24-7/8”, linen backed example features a close-up view of a Boeing jet propeller, with travelers deplaning in the background, and another jet taking off in the night sky above. Sabena became mainland Europe’s first airline to offer trans-Atlantic jet service via Boeing 707; this is one poster from a series designed by Van den Eynde heralding Sabena’s jet age.
This sale also features posters capturing important 20th century political and social initiatives.
- Lot #583, Su Negrin, Peter Hujar, And Suzanne Bevier's Gay Liberation, is estimated at $4,000-6,000. This offset, primarily orange, tan, and magenta lithograph photographic poster measures 22 x 17" and was published in 1970 in New York by Times Change Press.
- Lot #582, Donna Gottschalk's Sisterhood Feels Good, is estimated at $900-1,300. This unbacked offset lithograph of two women sleeping under a "lesbians unite" sign measures 15-9/16 x 22”. It was published in 1971 - also by Times Change Press in New York.
- Lot #629, Gerald Spencer Pryse's (1881-1956) To-Morrow—When Labour Rules, is estimated at $800-1,200. It measures 40 x 60” and was printed in 1923 in London by Vincent Brooks Day & Son. This linen backed example, published by the Labour Party, depicts girls leading a group of working class folks forward on a sunny path. This was part of a poster series by Pryse that featured images of everyday people whose lives the Labour Party promised to improve.
Also on offer are intriguing selections of posters promoting legacy European brands and products.
- Lot #69, Leonetto Cappiello's, Cognac Monnet, is estimated at $2,500-3,500. This framed and glazed example measures 78-½ x 50-¼” and was printed in Paris by Devambez in 1927. It is illustrated with a flapper woman in red and purple kissing her snifter of cognac which contains a sun emanating rays of sunshine as soft as her dress.
- Lot #60, Eugene Grasset's Encre L. Marquet, is estimated at $1,600-2,400. It was printed in 1892 in Paris by Artistiques G. De Malherbe. This color lithograph poster - the larger of two formats - features a contemplative woman looking upward at the sky on a cloudy night. She holds a quill pen and sheaves of paper, ready to set down her thoughts with the fine ink advertised on the poster. This framed and glazed example measures 46-½ x 31-½”.
- Lot #75, Jean D’Ylen's (1866-1938) Fiorino. Asti Spumante, is estimated at $1,500-2,500. This handsomely framed and glazed poster for sparkling wine measures 63 x 44 ¾” and was printed in Paris in 1922 by Vercasson. It depicts a jolly gentleman in a powdered wig dressed in yellow-green who has found his companion for the evening... the bottle’s smiling face and wig of froth mirror the man’s own bearing.
This sale comes full circle with film and entertainment themed posters - with several highlights representing 20th century science fiction and cult classic movies.
- Lot #4, The Devil Girl from Mars, is estimated at $1,500-2,500. This 41 x 26-7/8” linen backed poster was published in 1955 by Spartan. It promotes the British sci-fi film starring Patricia Laffan as Nyah, the titular Devil Girl, and her invading force. This army came to Earth to capture human males and return them to Mars, whose own male population was in severe decline.
- Lot #8, Tobor the Great, is estimated at $1,200-1,800. This linen backed poster measures 40-¾ x 27-¼" and was produced in 1954 to promote this now cult-classic film. It features artwork of a helpless damsel in the arms of the monster Tobor (“robot” backwards).
- Lot #21, Children of the Storm, is estimated at $1,000-2,000. This linen backed, Soviet-era film poster measures 42-½ x 29" and was printed in 1926. It is illustrated with Cyrillic lettering depicting a young woman’s head in yellow alongside a bucking horse rendered in red against a blue background.
According to Joe Slabaugh, Director of Cataloging at Potter & Potter Auctions, "This auction is strong in the travel section, and features our most extensive Hawaiian and tropical destination selection to date. At the same time, there are intriguing selections in numerous other categories, from one of the earliest gay right posters, to literary and magazine advertisements, to nineteenth century wine advertising. Unlike past sales, it's harder to predict what might get the most attention."