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Second Chance Sale: Top Posters Under $1,500

Second Chance Sale: Top Posters Under $1,500

Our Second Chance Sale from Rare Posters #81 has plenty of great lots still available—and they’re all on sale for the reserve price plus our 20% commission through July 31. Explore our selections of great items for under $1,500—and view all available lots here.

To purchase, please leave a bid on the desired lot online or call us at 212-787-4000.

24. Ciencia Popular. ca. 1915.
By F. Sagristá
25 1/4 x 34 1/2 in./64.3 x 87.8 cm
Price: $1,320

In the vein of so many other great Art Nouveau designs for the latest in transit technology, Sagristá employs a goddess illuminating newly developed marvels: a zeppelin hovers above a passenger train; a motorcyclist zooms ahead of a race car; a speed boat careens ahead. They’re just some of the “latest inventions” highlighted in Ciencia Popular, a weekly magazine exploring science and industry. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly which magazine this is; the English-language Popular Science was founded in 1872, but only added a Spanish version in 2008. Magazines of the same title were printed in Brazil and Argentina beginning in the mid-1920s. It would appear that Spain’s version has been nearly vanquished from history, but this striking design is certainly a testament to Spain’s scientific prowess.

View all Spanish posters.
74. Clément-Cycles-Motocycles. ca. 1890.
By Pal (Jean de Paléologue, 1860-1942)
42 3/8 x 55 5/8 in./107.5 x 141.2 cm
Price: $1,320

With a noble-looking Marianne figure standing proudly in front of them, we are presented with a glimpse of both the bicycle and early motorcycle models offered by Clément. By 1890, it was the most popular cycle brand in France, allowing it to boast the “largest factory in the world,” shown spreading out toward the horizon.

View all Bicycle posters.
117. La Licorne. ca. 1918.
By Robert de Coninck
57 5/8 x 41 3/4 in./146.5 x 106 cm
Price: $1,440

Coninck’s majestic unicorn struggles to keep up with the Corre automobile charging ahead. The company adopted the animal as their mascot after achieving racing successes with the driver Waldemar Lestienne, whose family crest bore a unicorn. The company began production of tricycles, quadricycles, and single-cylinder cabriolets in Levallois-Perret in 1901; the outbreak of war forced them to relocate to Neuilly-sur-Seine, and they remained in business until 1947. Coninck’s genre paintings were well-received at the Salon des Indépendants from 1920 to 1932.

View all Automobile posters.
138. TWA / New York. 1955.
By David Klein
24 7/8 x 40 1/8 in./63.2 x 102 cm
Price: $720

Klein is best remembered for the dozens of destination advertisements he created for TWA during the 1950s and ’60s. For destination New York, Klein creates a stacked perspective of some of the city’s best known sights, piling landmark upon landmark—St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Plaza’s Prometheus, the Brooklyn Bridge, et al—then crowning them with a bust of Lady Liberty, and the typeface of the New York Times.

View all Aviation posters.
153. The Blue Bird. 1939.
Anonymous
27 1/2 x 41 in./70 x 104.2 cm
Price: $960

Shirley Temple was just 11 years old when she starred in the “The Blue Bird,” but she already had almost 30 previous film roles under her belt. Temple played Mytyl, a bratty and difficult little girl who comes across a unique bird in the Royal Forest. Though the plot takes place in Germany during the Napoleonic Wars, it shares many plot points with “The Wizard of Oz,” which was released the previous year: Mytyl is visited in a dream by a fairy who coaxes her to seek out the Blue Bird of Happiness. She is accompanied by her dog, cat, and a lantern, who have been transformed into humans; they time travel, encounter a frightening forest, experience luxury, and see the future. Mytyl awakens a transformed little girl who expresses kindness and compassion. The anonymous designer of this poster gives us a Technicolor vision of this dream world, replete with a version of the Emerald City basked in a golden glow.

View all Film posters.
172. Farrell Lines. ca. 1950.
Anonymous
27 7/8 x 43 1/4 in./70.6 x 110 cm
Price: $1,080

This wry image of Mistinguett plays on her legendary performance style involving luxurious flirtation with the viewer. It’s also a testament to the seamless collaboration between the showgirl and her costume-designer artist, the young prodigy Charles Gesmar, who designed thousands of costumes and 55 posters for her. Note the identical hue of coral upon wrist-bauble, nails, and lips; the lapis lazuli upon her finger, and in her eye shadow; the emerald upon her ring finger, and in her eyes; the black pearls and Mistinguett’s mascara. Peek-a-boo, the colors say: I see you.

View all Travel posters.
174. Josephine Baker / RCA. ca. 1960.
Anonymous
30 1/4 x 46 7/8 in./76.8 x 119 cm
Price: $1,080

This extremely rare publicity poster of Josephine Baker features a photo by Sam Levin, who was one of the most famous photographers of actresses and celebrities from the 1930s to the 1970s. He was credited with creating an aura of glamour and fame for Baker beginning in the 1930s, and he also created striking images for Romy Schneider and Brigitte Bardot. The poster is undated but is probably from 1960-’61, when Baker produced the last of three albums recorded for the RCA label.

View all Music posters.
175. Levy’s Rye / Native American. 1967.
Anonymous
29 3/8 x 45 3/4 in./74.6 x 116.2 cm
SOLD

One of the most celebrated series of posters from the 1960s was a creation of the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency. Under its art director Howard Zieff, a dozen images of decidedly non-Jewish characters delighted in the “real Jewish rye” baked by Levy’s. These posters appeared on their delivery trucks and in the New York subways. This is the first and rarest image from this series.

View all Modern and Contemporary posters.
262. La Libre Esthétique. 1895.
By Gisbert Combaz
24 5/8 x 39 1/2 in./60.2 x 100.5 cm
Price: $1,200

The MISR Line was an Egyptian steamship company that ran from Alexandria to Marseille with a stopover in the Italian port of Genova. The goal of this poster was to emphasize the Egyptian style service on these ships to better prepare voyagers for their sojourn to Egypt. As one of the last posters created by Cappiello, it shows that the master has lost none of his touch. This is the smaller format in-store display—and rare!

View all Art Exhibition posters.
288. Gitanes. ca. 1955.
By Pierre Fix-Masseau
30 3/8 x 47 in./77 x 109.2 cm
Price: $720

Cigarettes tumble like musical notes from the Gitanes gypsy-lady’s guitar in this slinky and seductive bit of mid-century Modernism from Fix-Masseau.

View all Tobacco posters.
292. Mistinguett / Jewels. 1925.
By Charles Gesmar
46 1/8 x 63 in./117 x 160 cm
Price: $1,320

This wry image of Mistinguett plays on her legendary performance style involving luxurious flirtation with the viewer. It’s also a testament to the seamless collaboration between the showgirl and her costume-designer artist, the young prodigy Charles Gesmar, who designed thousands of costumes and 55 posters for her. Note the identical hue of coral upon wrist-bauble, nails, and lips; the lapis lazuli upon her finger, and in her eye shadow; the emerald upon her ring finger, and in her eyes; the black pearls and Mistinguett’s mascara. Peek-a-boo, the colors say: I see you.

View all Gesmar posters.
318. The Shop Girl. ca. 1897.
By John Hassall
19 3/4 x 28 1/4 in./50 x 71.8 cm
Price: $840

Written by H.J.W. Dam, The Shop Girl was one of the new style Irish musical comedies which burst to popularity at the end of the 19th century. Each of these types of musicals focused on a single girl and her misadventures toward success, society, and love. They were a natural progression out of the era of burlesque and into one of a linear story line and coherent plot, ultimately allowing for the more complex theatrical musicals of the 20th century to be born.

View all Theatre posters.
321. The Chap-Book. 1896.
By Frank Hazenplug
13 3/4 x 20 1/4 in./35 x 51.5 cm
Price: $720

Hazenplug was a prolific contributor to the early literary magazine The Chap-Book: he designed their books, drew their advertisements, and provided illustrations to accompany the magazine’s written contents. And he experimented tirelessly, which amounted to his unique signature style. He drew influence from “the Pre-Raphaelites, arts and crafts masters such as Walter Crane, Art Nouveau, and Aubrey Beardsley” (MacLeod, p. 229) to develop his own American aesthetic using straight and structured lines and flat expanses of washed color. Here, we see his dreamlike fairy-tale aesthetic in application: a blissful reader enjoying the magazine with a generous amount of wine.

View all Literary posters.
378. Les Arts de la Femme. 1895.
By Etienne Moreau-Nélaton
31 1/2 x 47 1/2 in./80 x 120.5 cm
Price: $1,200

When reviewing the year’s best posters, the critic Maindron noted that this particular design for an exhibition of works by female artists was “la délicieuse affiche” and predicted that it would have “great value” in the future.

View all Art Exhibition posters.
430. The Poster. 1898.
By Sidney Ransom
19 7/8 x 29 1/4 in./50.5 x 74.2 cm
Price: $1,080

This poster is a jewel in any serious poster collection. For the lively English monthly journal which chronicled the contemporary poster scene in Europe and America, we are shown a character from one poster stepping out to admire one from another! Little is known of this artist, who signed his works, largely caricature-style illustrations, either M.Y. or M. Yendis, or as shown here, Mosnar Yendis. The design is an instructive example of how to deal effectively with the subject of posters, and remains the most admired legacy of the artist.

View all Posters on Posters.
446. Lincoln Center / Philharmonic Hall. 1962.
By Ben Shahn
30 x 46 in./76.2 x 117 cm
Price: $840

“Shahn’s love of music, musicians, and instruments, modern as well as ancient, is reflected in his many works dealing with musical themes. His image here of an angel… the graceful swirls of the feathery wings and the trance-like, ecstatic posture of the organist have that eye-arresting quality so important to poster art. This poster announcing the opening of Philharmonic Hall in the new Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City was the first to be commissioned by the Center, under a gift from the Albert A. List Foundation” (Shahn, p. 145).

View all New York posters.
460. La Syphilis. ca. 1926.
By Theodoro (Théodore Pfeifer)
30 7/8 x 46 7/8 in./78.5 x 119 cm
Price: $1,080

A marvelous document: syphilis, says the poster, is a social plague and its victims are countless. It then goes on to list the myriad effects of the disease—that many have the disease without knowing it; that it’s one of the principal causes of sickness and death among the newborn; that a good number of chronic illnesses originate with syphilis. The silver lining: happily, syphilis is curable. The design urges all those contracting the disease to seek immediate treatment to prevent infecting others. The poster is sponsored by the French National League Against the Venereal Peril. The message is serious, and no doubt still timely, but it’s the image of the kissing couple against the “Death-Will-Find-You” grinning skull that makes it memorable. This is the larger format.

View all Art Deco posters.
490. Bank / RCA Color Scanner. 1968.
By Andy Warhol
45 3/4 x 29 7/8 in./116 x 75.8 cm
Price: $1,440

“Pretty as a pigture, huh?” In 1968, RCA came up with a novel piece of technology: a device that could scan camera film for printing. Warhol immediately saw the implications: the traditional processes of the graphic artist and lithograph designer would become obsolete, since one could lift an image directly from film to poster. Since Warhol’s own art involved messing about with photos, he must have looked at RCA’s invention with a wry sense of humor. So the poster he created is a multi-layered joke: a live pig is painted as a piggy-bank, photographed, and scanned, with all the fine detail of fur reproduced perfectly. Warhol then went one step further. As Warhol painted the pig at RCA’s ad agency J. Walter Thompson, Irwin Horowitz photographed it. Andy’s entire team from the Factory was there. Warhol then negotiated the film rights to the work, seizing back the means of production in a move both artistically and professionally savvy. If any of our readers have a copy of it, please call us.

View all Modern and Contemporary posters.
View all Second Chance Sale posters

The Second Chance Sale is live through July 31.
All available posters from our 81st Auction are priced at the reserve plus commission.
To purchase, place a bid on the online lot or call us at 212-787-4000.

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