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15 Posters with Reserves Under $1,500

15 Posters With Reserves Under $1,500

Our 86th Rare Posters Auction contains a number of beautiful designs that won’t break the bank. Preview our top posters with reserves of $1,500 and under before they go to auction on March 20.

35. Salmson. 1929.
By Alexis Kow (Alexei Kogeynikov, 1901-1978)
24 x 33 3/4 in./61 x 85.7 cm
Est: $1,400-$1,700

Salmson began as a manufacturer of water-cooled airplane engines. Their first automobiles appeared in 1921, and graduated from amusing cycle-cars to sports cars, and from there to majestic luxury sedans like this one. In 1925, Salmson won 76 races and set 14 speed records for its class. Russian-born Kow created smart and sleek automobile print advertisements and posters. Here, he makes effective use of monochrome geometry to create a hypnotizing effect.

79. Lippincott's / October. 1895.
By Will Carqueville (1871-1946)
12 1/4 x 18 3/4 in./31 x 47.5 cm
Est: $1,200-$1,500

Carqueville creates a perfectly autumnal scene for this fashionable young lady to stroll among the falling leaves while searching for the ideal spot to sit and read her newest issue of Lippincott’s.

102. Katzen-Ausstellung. 1900.
By Anonymous
37 1/2 x 49 5/8 in./95.4 x 126 cm
Est: $1,400-$1,700

While Steinlen famously used images of his cats to promote his own exhibitions, this anonymous artist uses the felines to announce an actual exhibition of cats in Vienna. This poster is for the first edition of the event, held at the Horticultural Society in May, 1900. Rare!

120. Scala / Viens Fou-Foule.
Adrien Barrère (1877-1931)
23 7/8 x 31 3/4 in./61 x 80.8 cm
Estimate: $1,700-$2,000

Barrère is well known for his portrayal of France’s leading music hall and theatrical personalities of the first quarter of the 20th century. His caricature style, using flat colors and broad treatments, turned these images into delightful and witty designs. Here, for a revue called “Come Crazy-Crowd,” the gentleman appears to have some eyes on the young lady carrying a hat box.

128. Mistinguett. ca. 1913.
By G. K. Benda (Georges Klugelmann)
45 1/4 x 59 1/4 in./115 x 150.5 cm
Est: $1,500-$2,000

My, is it windy out there! G. K. Benda may well have taken a page from L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz,” as he depicts Mistinguett fetchingly pulling a Toto-esque purse pup back from the whipping winds. Over her 50-year career in French song, dance, and cabaret, Mistinguett was known both for her coquettish whimsy and for her flamboyant costumes, which we see here: a red chrysanthemum-like butterfly at the end of her hat, extending from caterpillar-like stripes; ivy on her shoe-buckles; the candy-cane-like line of the dog leash. This costume is perfect for both December and March holidays.

208. For Colored Girls. 1976.
By Paul Davis (1938- )
41 5/8 x 82 3/4 in./105.6 x 210.2 cm
Est: $800-$1,000

Born in Oklahoma, Davis attended New York’s School of Visual Arts and was an early member of Push Pin Studios. Since the 1960s, his illustrations and graphic designs have appeared in countless magazine pages and covers, as well as on book jackets, record covers, and film posters. After opening his own graphic design studio, he began creating the images for which he is perhaps best known: Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival and The Public Theater. Davis’ strength as a posterist lies in his powerful, often idealized portraiture. His talents are spectacularly on display in this poster for the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, which uses the forceful image of Ntozake Shange, the work’s playwright, for her presentation at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Set against a background of a tiled subway station that’s been graffitied with colorful lettering, this larger two-sheet format of the design makes quite an impression.

227. Marilyn Monroe / The Seven Year Itch. 1966.
By Dorothea Fischer-Nosbisch (1921-2009)
23 5/8 x 33 in./60 x 83.8 cm
Estimate: $800-$1,000

Fischer-Nosbisch truly embraces the psychedelic vibes of the ‘60s in this design for the German rerelease of “The Seven Year Itch.” Swirling letters, boldly contrasting colors, and a Pop Art-style collage announce the Billy Wilder title starring Marilyn Monroe. The film was responsible for creating one of the most iconic images in history: Monroe standing over a subway grate with her dress blowing in the wind of a passing train.

284. Valentine. 1932.
Charles Loupot (1892-1962)
9 x 11 3/4 in./23 x 29.8 cm
Estimate: $1,400-$1,700

In his poster life, Loupot’s famous Valentine harlequin would trade his spray gun for a brush in order to get his point across. In fact, the harlequin with the clearly delineated diamonds would evolve into nothing more than a solid flat-black figure or line drawing so as to better show off the colorful Valentine palette behind him. Here, in a more recently discovered smaller, in-store display format (which easily could have been used as a mailer as well), his avid brusher is captured in the process of making a blue chair goldenrod, while the background burst and can-enhancing triangles hint at the broad, profound Valentine prismatic array. It’s neat conceit from the master colorist who can make even black look brilliant. The figure of the jolly painter himself is still used by the company today.

298. Le Vêtement “Superchic.” 1931.
By Henry le Monnier (1893-1978)
47 x 63 1/2 in./119.4 x 161.2 cm
Est: $1,400-$1,700

“For the chic man, the ‘Superchic’ clothing” is quite a redundant catch phrase, but luckily le Monnier salvages the ad campaign with a tunnel-vision image of two fabulously dressed men. The landscape beyond is rendered in desaturated greens, allowing their brown attire to catch our attention and interest. 

351. Mandeville and King / Superior Flower Seeds. 1897.
By Louis J. Rhead (1858-1926)
18 1/4 x 29 in./46.3 x 73.7 cm
Estimate: $1,700-$2,000

With a heavy nod to Grasset, this intricate and contemplative design for Mandeville and King flower seeds delicately portrays the romanticization of nature so popular at the time.

357. Revolver Jane. 1919.
By Erik Rohman (1891-1949)
23 1/2 x 35 in./59.6 x 89 cm
Est: $1,200-$1,500

“Battling Jane” was the name of this 1918 American film, but the Swedish re-release opted to call it “Revolver Jane,” which is a much snappier title. Dorothy Gish stars as Jane, a young vagabond who moves to Maine, finds an abandoned child, and adopts it as her own. At a prize show for babies, her child takes the prize, which leads to some financial battles with the previously absent father. Rare!

358. Go Greyhound / New York. ca. 1959.
By Rod Ruth (1912-1987)
29 3/8 x 39 5/8 in./74.5 x 100.6 cm
Est: $1,700-$2,000

While technically inaccurate, this idealized view of Central Park with the city’s skyline perfectly reflecting in a pond makes New York seem like a metropolis with the best of both worlds.

373. Arosa. 1927.
By Eduard Stiefel (1875-1967)
35 3/8 x 50 in./90 x 127 cm
Est: $1,400-$1,700

Stiefel studied lithography at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, where he later became one of its teachers. He painted portraits, landscapes, and even murals; designed stage decorations, illustrated books, and produced a number of posters. This design of a view through an open train window allows the artist to contrast the cool greens, blues, and lavenders of the passing landscape with a bright red dress on his traveler.

413. Tout ça... Pour ça! 1993.
By Tomi Ungerer (1931-2019)
38 7/8 x 32 1/4 in./98.6 x 82 cm
Est: $800-$1,000

“Tout ça… Pour ça!” (All That… for This?!) is a French film directed and written by Claude Lelouch and starring Marie-Sophie L. and Francis Huster. The leading couple and their friends leave behind their ordinary jobs to milk money from tourists until being apprehended, which leads to more comedic drama.

415. Gitanes. 1955.
By Bernard Villemot (1911-1989)
46 1/8 x 63 3/8 in./117.2 x 161 cm
Est: $1,000-$1,200

In 1947, the maker of one of France’s best known cigarettes approached designer Max Ponty to create a new logo for them. The silhouette of a Spanish style dancer which evoked the Gypsy (la Gitane) that he drew became the firm’s trademark and product identification, still used to this day. Properly, Villemot gives credit to Ponty by placing the gypsy in the center of the image, and then dots the scene with cigarettes that mirror her shape.

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