Rare & Collectible Posters

Collection from family trip in 1952 includes original letter from Cunard Line Agents' Bulletin C-16 dated 6/14/52 in very good condition. Two brochures from the Caronia, one artist signature is G.H. Iavis. One book printed in England, one is printed in U.S.A. and the letter is from New York. Minor scratches and wear for the age and the First Class tag for the Cunard White Star Limited to Southampton, First Section is intact with the oriingal string. Please visit the photographs for the best impression.

Virginia: T. C. Williams Co, 1860. No Binding. Fine. Advertising Poster, Slight Browning To Front, More Severe Browning To To Verso. Bright And Unworn.

Eight page text intro in German, four page contents and ten loose plates, some in colour, contained in the original portfolio. Page size ;- 30.5 x 21 cm. c.12 x 8.1/4 inches. portfolio slightly soiled / rubbed /creased but sound. contents fine. Signed and dated by Kokoschka "Xmas 73" in pencil.

ca. 1935. Very Good. Printed bill, 35 x 50 cm. Blue ink on paper. Restored and laid down. The propaganda war against Franco’s forces in Spain was fought largely with posters. These were pasted up on walls in the night at great risk not only to those putting them up, but to the printers, artists, and organizers, too. The Socorro Rojo Internacional (S.R.I.), a creation of the Communist International Congress of 1922, was intended to function as a support and aid organization (providing soup kitchens, medical care, etc.) but also propagandized energetically. This poster declares “War unto Death! To the provocateur, the spy, to anyone who sows discontent and fear. Let’s end the Fifth Column.” The little figure is composed of multiple eyes and antennae, keeping watch and listening. Such posters were willfully destroyed, and surviving examples are rare.

[England, 1982]. Poster (420mm x 580mm). Professionally mounted, framed and glazed using archival materials. White text and graphic of a missile caught in a spider's web superimposed over a grey and red photograph of the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki. Marker pen notes at the bottom of the poster give contact details and instructions for travelling to the camp by bus from Birmingham. Light creases from old folds into four, some slight surface scuffs. Very good condition. A rare poster advertising Embrace the Base, one of the key mass actions at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. We have been able to locate only two other copies in institutional collections, at the LSE Women's Library and the Glasgow Women's Library. The Greenham Common protest was established in September of 1981 by the Welsh group Women for Life on Earth, who were opposed to the deployment of nuclear tipped Cruise missiles at the site. What was initially planned as a single march became a permanent protest camp in place until… Read More

Original Poster: Theatre Event: The Merce Cunningham Dance Company with John Cage. Thursday, November 16, 8:00 p.m. Assembly Hall. Tickets: 2.50, 2:00 and 1.50, Illini Union Box Office or the Assembly Hall. Approximately 11.5" x 22”. Heavy yellow stock with red design and lettering, overall VG+, with some offsetting to bottom third, a small stain not affecting image or text, a small closed tear and bumped corner.John Cage, the avant-garde composer and a founder of the New York School, arrived in 1967 for a three-year appointment as Associate of the Center for Advanced Studies and Visiting Professor of Music, where he created numerous “happenings,” performance art where visitors, performers, objects, and environments interacted. The first happening Cage directed at Illinois (complete with large weather balloons) occurred on this November weekend: Music Circus (otherwise known as Musicircus) at the University of Illinois Stock Pavillion, which began at 8pm and lasted for nearly eight hours.A… Read More

No binding. Very Good. Fine Art Print. Vintage original 39 x 105" (100 x 270 cm.) poster, Italy. Olga Benetti, Frecesca Bertini, Vittorio Bianchi, Luigi Cigoli, Alfredo De Antoni, dir: Alfredo De Antoni; Caesar Film. This rare poster has been professionally conserved and now displays like new, on linen, very good.Italian version of the famous story based on the Victorien Sardou play, a print of which is still in existence. A stunning Art Nouveau-style portrait of star Francesca Bertini as Floria Tosca. This prolific star of the Italian cinema, one of film's first true divas, was also a writer and director. She made the first of her 140 films in 1907 and her last in 1976 (most were made before 1935), Bertolucci's 1900.Bertini was the ultimate diva of 1910s-era Italian film, the most celebrated and most adulated of Italian movie actresses of her generation. She married count Paul Cartier, and lived a life of luxury until her passing at the age of 93. Poster artwork is by Tito Corbella (1885-1966), a… Read More

No binding. Very Good. Fine Art Print Vintage original 40 x 30" (100 x 75 cm.) three-sheet poster, USA. Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller, Russell Johnson, dir: Joseph M. Newman, Jack Arnold: Universal. Poster is rolled and displays a fair amount of creasing at edges, particularly at the top and bottom. There is inner creasing, more evident in the title box area. Tears at edges have been repaired with brown tape and there are a few small unrepaired edge tears. The top image portion with portrait of Domergue and Reason and the alien to the right is a pasteover and the foot area of the alien has lifted slightly, very good.One of the top science fiction classics of the 1950s. The story involved aliens coming to Earth to engage scientists in a scheme to wage war and destroy the planet. This film, made on a very modest Universal budget, was likely not really in the making for 2 years, but the studio was dissatisfied with director Newman's work and hired Jack Arnold to reshoot a great… Read More

[China].: 軍事委員會政治訓練部. [Jun shi wei yuan hui zheng zhi xun lian bu].. [1926].. Chinese Kuomintang propaganda poster printed in red, issued by the Political Training Department of the Military Affairs Commission. Text in traditional Chinese. Chinese character for "one" at lower left apparently indicates more posters in this series. Small mark right edge, some light creases, very good. Sheet measures 78.6 x 26.8cm. The Double Tenth Day celebrates the Wuchang Uprising on October 10th 1911. The uprising took place in what is today the Wuchang district within Wuhan and brought about the end of the Qing Dynasty. This uprising was the first of a series of uprisings across China and by the end of 1911 there was really no doubt that the Qing Dynasty would fall. On February 12th, 1912 Empress Dowager Longyu formally abdicated the throne on behalf of Puyi. The publisher of this poster,… Read More

[China].: 國民政府軍事委員會政治訓練部. [Guo min zheng fu jun shi wei yuan hui zheng zhi xun lian bu].. [1926].. Chinese Kuomintang propaganda poster printed in blue on white paper, folded. Issued by the Political Training Department of the Military Affairs Commission, a head portrait of Chiang Kai-shek in military uniform is featured at the top of the poster. A large blank section in main body of the poster has been left for the addition of text or images. Traditional Chinese lower section. Some light creasing mainly upper section, light wear edges, some staining upper and lower sections of sheet but overall very good. Text in traditional Chinese. Sheet measures 77.1 x 27.3cm. 軍事委員會政治訓練部 "The Political Training Department of the Military Affairs Commission", a very short-lived yet powerful department, was established in March 1926 by 2nd Central… Read More

Finland: Kosmos-Filmi Oy, 1934. 1st Edition . No Binding. Fine. A fascinating Finnish A2 "small" one-sheet, cinema poster for the classic Soviet-era comedy-musical Jolly Fellows, aka "Moscow Laughs" and "Jazz Comedy" directed by Grigori Aleksandrov. The film was made in 1934 and was hugely successful. It's director Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein's long-time co-director, won numerous accolades and attracted the attention and praise of Graham Greene amongst other notable critics. The film was first screened in Finland in 1934 by Kosmos-Filmi Oy, a distributor and importer of Soviet films. No subsequent releases or even screenings are recorded. However, Kosmos-Filmi requested a new inspection from the Finnish Film Classification board in 1958. We believe this poster was created at that time to accompany a new screening, possibly in one of the Russian-owned cinemas located in Helsinki at that time. Accordingly, the print-run (and distribution) of this poster would… Read More

Finland: Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1953. 1st Edition . No Binding. Very Good. First Printing. A vintage, original, and quite unique Finnish cinema-used poster for the first screening in Finland of the movie, SIREN OF BAGDAD starring Paul Henreid. The film was first screened in Finland in 1953 with no further subsequent releases. Approximate size is 60 cm by 40 cm, standard Finnish A2 format. SIGNS OF USE: the poster has centre-folds in both directions and pinholes to the corners and centre - quite large holes at the bottom corners. To the verso of the poster is a large original drawing for another movie - The Red Beret. That film was screened in Finland in 1954. Unfortunately the drawing is not signed and therefore likely to be the work of a cinema employee pressed to come up with something due to the absence of a real poster for an imminent screening. At the bottom is written (in Finnish) "Tuesday 8pm" suggesting it was actually used. Overall, in VG condition and the drawing on the… Read More

Finland: KG Divina Film, 1958. 1st Edition . No Binding. Fine. First Printing. A vintage, original, Finnish cinema poster for the first screening in Finland of the German, Oscar-nominated terror movie, THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT. The film was first screened in Finland in 1958 with no further theatrical runs. A stunning example of cinema advertising art, this poster is in Fine, vibrant condition, approximate size is 23.5 inches by 15.7 inches, standard Finnish A2 format. SIGNS OF USE: no pinholes to the corners but rather two tape residue marks to the upper margin (picture not affected). Fold-line to middle, a couple of minor scrapes to the upper right corner which has resulted in tiny loss of colour but otherwise in outstanding condition, FINE. Signed in the plate by the prolific film poster artist, Engel. For the best appreciation of condition please study the accompanying photograph which is high resolution.

Motif Editions. No binding. Fine. Andy Warhol (producer) [London]: Motif Editions, 1970. Vintage original 30 x 20" (76 x 51 cm.) British poster. Unfolded, fine. Andy Warhol's massive 3 1/2-hour film Chelsea Girls was meant to be presented on two screens with only one of the two available soundtracks being played (the projectionist could choose which two soundtracks to use). The film had some kind of truncated showing in London soon after the New York premiere in 1966.In 1968 it received its first intact screenings in London, with the two screens simultaneously showing the different reels of film as intended. For that four-day event, pop illustrator Alan Aldridge created this poster for the London Arts Laboratory. The young woman in it is Chare Shentsone, 16, a budding artist who later became close to Francis Bacon. There was an edition of this poster printed in 1968 to be posted outdoors over London. No examples of that 1968 printing are known to have surfaced. Then, in 1970, Aldridge authorized this… Read More

[Washington, D.C.] & New York: U.S. Treasury Dept., United States Printing & Lithograph Co., 1918. One large original poster, 20 x 30 in., colour lithograph (toning to fore-edges, couple minor closed tears neatly repaired on verso, minor chipping to corners, oxidization of paper on verso), still a remarkably bright copy with little sunning to the image retaining the original richness. First edition of this very popular poster executed by Haskell Coffin in 1918 employing the image of Joan of Arc to pull at the heartstrings of American women to buy War Savings Stamps for the war effort. Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 epic film, Joan: The Woman had generated so much press coverage, and movie lovers that Joan of Arc had become a household name. War Savings Stamps were inexpensive, and after completing a booklet could be converted into War Bonds -- these drives funded two-thirds of the American war effort in World War I. Coffin (1878-1941) flourished as a commercial artist through the opening decades of the… Read More