Auction alert: Graphic Design Featuring London Underground posters

Next week is the Graphic Design Featuring London Underground Posters auction. The sale takes place at Antikbar, Kings Road, London on Saturday 19th March 2022, starting at 2pm.

There will be 251 lots of authentic, vintage advertising posters coming under the hammer. 100 of them being original London Underground posters from the 1920s-1930s.

Bidding via Live Auctioneers: Buyer’s premium: 25%
Bidding via The Saleroom: 23%
Bidding via Invaluable: Buyer’s premium: 25%

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Lot 7: Original vintage London Transport poster – Summer Garlands on Hedge and Thicket
Original vintage London Transport poster – Summer Garlands on Hedge and Thicket. Design by Walter E. Spradbery (1889-1969) taken from a lino-cut featuring convolvulus flowers. London transport on bottom right corner. Very good condition, creasing, minor staining. Country of issue: UK, designer: Walter E Spradbery, size (cm): 25.5×31, year of printing: 1936.
Estimate: £240 – £480

Lot 27: Original vintage London Transport poster for the Kennel Club Show
Estimate: £375 – £750
Original vintage London Transport poster for the Kennel Club Show that took place between December 7 and 8 1938 at Olympia – Design by the notable artists Tom Eckersley (1914-1997) and Eric Lombers (1914-1978) features a white dog with a red collar on a lead. London transport logo in bottom right corner. The Kennel Club is the official kennel club of the United Kingdom and is the oldest recognised kennel club in the world. Printed by Baynard Press, London. Excellent condition, letter G posted over. Country of issue: UK, designer: Eckersley-Lombers, size (cm): 25.5×32, year of printing: 1938.
Estimate: £240 – £480

Lot 63: Original vintage London Transport poster advertising the Presentation of Colours by H.M the King
Original vintage London Transport poster advertising the Presentation of Colours by H.M the King – Event took place on July 16 1936 at Hyde Park – Design by Dora Batty (1891-1966) features Royal Guards wearing the traditional red uniform and bearskin hats down on one knee and holding flags up for the ceremony. London Transport logo in bottom right. The Presentation of Colours is a ceremony pioneered by the British Armed Forces that marks an anniversary or event in the history of a particular regiment. Good condition, tears, creasing. Country of issue: UK, designer: Dora Batty, size (cm): 25.5×32, year of printing: 1936.
Estimate: £300 – £600

Lot 100: Original vintage London Transport poster for London Zoo Giant Panda
Original vintage London Transport poster for London Zoo Giant Panda. Design by Clifford Ellis (1907-1985) and Rosemary Ellis (1910-1998) features an adorable illustration of Ming, the giant panda, laying down portrayed against blue and white background. Printed by the Dangerfield Printing Company Ltd. London Transport logo in the top right corner. Excellent condition. Country of issue: UK, designer: Clifford Ellis and Rosemary Ellis, size (cm): 25.5×32, year of printing: 1939.
Estimate: £300 – £600

Lot 157: Original vintage magazine Soviet Photo / Sovetskoye Foto
Rare first issue of the original vintage magazine Soviet Photo / Sovetskoye Foto, No 1 1926, monthly magazine dedicated to amateur photography and photo reporting. The cover of the magazine features two silhouettes in yellow and light cream with their arms wide open set over black background, with red and black bold title text. The magazine presents various articles – ‘Our Culture and Photography’ by Lunacharsky, ‘How we photographed Lenin’ by L. Leonidov, a feature article on how to photograph for magazines and newspapers, Bromoil pigmentation with examples of an academic scientist B. Bekhterev and poet V. Mayakovsky, success of Soviet photographers works presented abroad, foreign novelties, advice on camera use, April Fools photo curiosity of a giant lion on Moscow streets; with various advertising for photo paper and photo salons; with photographs of A. Shayhet, depicting Leningrad spring, dragonfly. 31 pages. Poor condition, pencil and ink marks, stamp on the cover, scuffed spine, loose cover, loose pages, paper loss on pages. Country of issue: Russia, designer: Various, size (cm): 25×17, year of printing: 1926.
Estimate: £180 – £360

Lot 213: Original vintage public safety poster published by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents ROSPA
Original vintage public safety poster published by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) showing someone locking away bottles of medicine into a cabinet on a wall, the warning text above the hand holding the key in the lock and below: Lock away dangers in your home Medicines Tablets Cleansers. Printed by Loxley Bros Ltd. Good condition, small restored tears in margins, minor creasing in margins. Country of issue: UK, designer: Leonard Cusden, size (cm): 75×50, year of printing: 1950s.
Estimate: £90 – £180

Lot 217: Original vintage travel poster for Lufthansa
Original vintage travel poster for Lufthansa featuring a colourful mid-century design depicting lines and shapes of an old city entrance with a book on the side, the title text and logo in white below. Formed in 1926, Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. became Deutsche Lufthansa in 1933; the company’s crane logo was designed by Otto Firle in 1918. Excellent condition. Country of issue: Germany, designer: Hans Rott, size (cm): 101×63, year of printing: 1960s.
Estimate: £120 – £240

Lot 241: Original vintage advertising poster for the Creative Playthings educational toy shop
Original vintage advertising poster for the Creative Playthings educational toy shop in Manhattan New York featuring a fun and colourful graphic design by the South African toymaker and illustrator Fredun Shapur (b. 1929), showing a child in green dungarees and a white shirt kneeling on the ground and dipping a paintbrush onto a paint palette with contains yellow, red and blue paint on it, against a red background. One of a series of ten posters illustrating the different forms of play – dramatic, active, social etc. – and the products available in the store (opened 1945), also used for wrapping paper and in the company catalogue. Very good condition, minor creasing. Country of issue: USA, designer: Fredun Shapur, size (cm): 97×64, year of printing: 1971.
Estimate: £120 – £240

Lot 247: Original vintage advertising poster – Friends Melodies
Original vintage advertising poster for an international pop music programme of artists of socialist countries – Friends Melodies 1977 – featuring a bright and colourful psychedelic style design with cloud like shapes around the bold cursive white title lettering in the centre decorated with a small white and blue flower against the red background. Organised by the State Concert of the Soviet State Countries. Horizontal. Good condition, tears, creasing. Country of issue: Russia, designer: V. Vair, size (cm): 58×87, year of printing: 1977.
Estimate: £120 – £240

Designer Desire: Robert P. Gersin

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Health & safety is a necessary but mundane topic. It takes a talented designer to create interesting and eye-catching educational materials in the subject. Frederic H K Henrion was one such person, Robert P. Gersin was another.

We’ve brought together a number of the posters he designed in the 1970s for the National Fire Protection Association – and another – a ‘Plan for New York City’ for the Department of City Planning. They’re all in the possession of the Cooper Hewitt Collection, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.

I was unable to find any other work credited to Robert P. Gersin as an individual, although I found evidence of logo and branding (e.g. Simon Enterprises, Hackensack Medical Center and the Jamaican government) created by the organisation he founded.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, none of his designs were available to purchase. In addition, not a lot could be found about the man himself except for this short obituary below:

Robert P. Gersin, an award-winning industrial designer, died of cancer Wednesday at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. He was 60 years old and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Gersin, a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and the Cranbrook Academy of Art, gained an international reputation through Robert P. Gersin Associates Inc., a company he started in 1959.
He received more than 350 awards for a wide range of designs, including interiors, products and corporate identity programs. In 1984 the company designed the logotype and corporate identity program for Sears, Roebuck & Company, and in 1988 it designed the interior for Casual Corner stores.
Mr. Gersin is survived by his wife, Ingrid; his mother, Belle, of Milton, Mass., and a brother, Barry, of North Cambridge, Mass.

New York Times, 20th October 1989

Designer Desire: Kenneth Steel

Born and based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, Kenneth Steel (1906-1970) was a watercolourist, lithographer and engraver of landscapes and urban scenes. In this post we’re honing in on some of his numerous travel posters – for the likes of British Railways and British European Airways (BEA).

At 12-years-old, Steel won a scholarship to attend the Sheffield Technical School of Art. He went on to become the youngest artist to be elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1936.

In December 1940, both Steel’s mother and his pregnant wife were tragically killed in the Sheffield Blitz; the bombing also destroying much of his studio work.

His work can be found in the collections of National Railway Museum, Fife Collections Centre and Newport Museum and Art Gallery. Originals turn up at auction – from Christie’s and Bonhams to eBay – and can fetch into the high hundreds of pounds.

In 2020, a book was published, Kenneth Steel: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints and Railway Posters. The author, Edward Yardley, has co-curated an exhibition of over 100 of his works – Places in Time: The Art of Kenneth Steel – with accompanying talk and tours. It’s currently being held at Harold Cantor Gallery, Weston Park Museum, Sheffield runs until 2nd May 2022.

_{credit: Sheffield Weekly Gazette}

Additional image credits:
Art UK | Invaluable

Designer Desire: Zvi Narkiss

Born in Romania, (1921-2010) Zvi Narkiss was an award winning graphic designer and topographer.

He emigrated to Palestine at the age of 23, settling in Jerusalem. There, he attended painting classes with Jakob Steinhardt and Mordecai Ardon. He progressed on to study graphic design at The New Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. He was so considered so talented, he bypassed the first academic year. The following year, he was invited to join the graphics department at the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (the Jewish National Fund). Between 1950 and 1955 he was the chief graphic designer of the IDF’s training aids unit and served as head of the manuals’ design unit of the Israeli Air Force.

In 1955, he founded his own graphic design & typography studio where, for half a century, he designed books, exhibitions, stamps, banknotes, coins, advertising posters and logos. Amongst his many projects he designed two biblical books – the Horev Bible and the Hebrew University Bible – Jerusalem Crown for which he created a special typeface. He designed Israel’s very first tourism poster (included in the montage above), the IDF pavilion at the First Decade Exhibition (1958), the Victory Medal (1967), the Peace Medal (1977) and banknotes for the national bank of Israel.

Of all the design genres he practised, his real speciality was type design (fonts). He was the most prolific designer of Hebrew types during the 20^th century; throughout his career, he designed a total of 14 typeface sets. Narkis, the book types he created that bear his name (Narkiss, Narkis Block, New Narkis, Narkis Tam and Narkisim), are the most popular and commonly in use in Israel. All in all, he designed five of the ten most frequently used typefaces in Israel.

In 2006, he won the EMET Prize in the design category for his Hebrew font designs.

At Narkiss’ funeral in 2010, the head of the department of visual communications department at his alma mater eulogised that, although the population at large don’t know the name Zvi Narkiss:

…most of us ‘consume’ Narkis’ work on a daily basis, at nearly every moment… Zvi’s letters, the Hebrew letters Zvi designed over many years during his long career, appear and are in use everywhere. Nearly any material printed in Hebrew bears at least one of the typefaces Narkis designed, be it a best-selling novel, a daily newspaper, packaging for cheese, the opening of a television program, a road sign or paper currency. Narkis’ work is outstanding and very unusual. He nurtured and enriched the appearance of the Hebrew letter in a variety of new shapes – Zvi’s work has become the standard relative to which everything is designed.

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Additional image credits:
Palestine Poster Project | Wikipedia

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: vintage posters

Auction alert: Graphic Design Featuring London Underground posters

Designer Desire: Robert P. Gersin

Designer Desire: Kenneth Steel

Designer Desire: Zvi Narkiss