Ephemera

 Well it's here! The proverbial August bank holiday weekend. There was a time, not that many years ago, when it meant a trip to the seaside towns for families eager to get the chance of some time together on the last holiday weekend of the year before Christmas. It was not that long ago that fathers and husbands did not get the length of holidays that we now generally enjoy in Britain, making this a very important weekend. It's probably one of the reasons why, even today, we obsess over the weather on the August bank holiday. Bank holidays were extremely important and it was the railway companies that sold the magic of Britain's seaside resorts with colourful posters that were designed by some of the best artists of their day.

These posters are at the same time marvels of a bygone advertising style and also very collectable. However, beware if you are ever offered old railway posters for very little money. It's as likely hat they are one of the numerous reproductions that have been done in recent years. Mark Hill did a pice on collecting posters that you can read HERE.

The web is truly an amazing thing. There is not a day goes by that I learn something from it that I would otherwise have been completely oblivious to back in the days when computers didn't sit on your lap but occupied vast rooms. I had an email from a friend in Christchurch saying they had read an article on a New Zealand blog about my article in the Daily Telegraph on posters. I naturally went in search of it.

The blog is called New Zealand Fine Art Print News and it is linked to a company that sells prints, and especially New Zealand prints. On their web site prints.co.nz thay have a massive selection of prints including some lovely vintage travel prints. Here's to the power of the web!

Fresh on the heels of my post about wartime posters comes news that posters of a different kind have sold for a large sum in New york. A rare collection of British Rail travel posters has fetched more than £166,000 at an auction in the United States. The  posters date from the golden age of rail travel, between the 1920s and 1950s and were designed by leading artists. Many of the posters depict iconic Scottish locations including the Forth Bridge, Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Edinburgh's Princes Street and Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.

Like many advertising or promotional posters they became extremely scarce having served their purpose. The collection of 198 posters went under the hammer at the Bloomsbury Auctions' sale in New York.

If you are interested in reading more about Railway Posters Mark posted this article in our archive last month – just click HERE

Mark Hill has just posted an interesting article about British wartime posters, which you can read HERE. Just a note of caution about posters that frequently come up for sale on eBay. There are reproductions that are offered by reputable dealers that are clearly sold as such – usually for around £5 (like the one illustrated here). However, every now and then what look like original posters are offered and these are also reproductions that were given away by a part work some years ago. As with anything on eBay be sure to check the sellers' ratings and if in doubt email and ask a few detailed questions.

I've just had an email from a friend of mine who wrote a book about Sinatra and 'knows people' in the Sinatra collecting field and he says that it is more likely to be worth around $1,500. About 10% of the Roadshow estimate.