This year’s outing, held on September 10, was no exception with plenty of private demand, predominantly from the UK, ensuring a high take-up with 174 of the 201 lots finding buyers. As last year, there was a strong West Country input to the content, so Christie’s promoted the sale with a couple of viewings in Devon which undoubtedly
generated added interest.
Alongside the more predictable best sellers, like Andrew Johnson’s stylish interwar design for LNER extolling the golfing attractions of North Berwick, which topped the day at a within estimate £8000, or Matania Fortunino’s 1930s image of Blackpool’s attractions that fetched £4000, there were plenty of posters somersaulting past their estimates.
For example, Christie’s were not sure who was responsible for the mid-1950s poster for Cornwall exhorting visitors to travel by train, but its idyllic view of a wave-lapped sandy cove peopled by happy
holidaymakers plainly appealed to a couple of prospective purchasers. As a result, the £500-700 estimate was left in the shade as it finally sold to a determined British collector for no less than £7500.
Similarly R.M. Lander’s deckchair view of Paignton beach from the same period was represented by two examples, both guided at £600-800 (although Christie’s evidently rated it as a stylish image since they chose it for their catalogue cover). One of these ended up making £1300, the other £2200.
There was also keen interest in a 1921 poster by one of the best known British designers – Edward McKnight Kauffer. A far cry from the West Country’s sandy beaches, it depicted crowd of Londoners, umbrellas up, battling against the rain and reminded the public that Winter Sales are Best Reached by Underground. Its less than pristine condition prompted CSK to estimated it at £800-1200 but it duly trebled expectations at £3500.
Nostalgia pulls in the private buyers as British seaside scenes do well
TRAVEL POSTERS: The annual travel poster sale held by Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) usually enjoys a keen collectors’ following, with buyers drawn by the evocative nostalgia and romance of a bygone age when the train rather than the car was the principal method of reaching one’s holiday destination.
