Auction Highlights: Vintage Posters

Our August Vintage Poster auction encompasses a broad array of genres, spanning the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries and from countries around the globe. Some of the oldest and most desirable items in the sale are Art Nouveau pieces from France by Mucha, Cappiello, Chéret, and Lautrec, among others, and turn-of-the-century American rarities by William Bradley and Edward Penfield.

As always, bidders can expect to feast their eyes on beach and summer travel posters advertising both local and faraway destinations and touting transportation via train, plane, and ocean liner. Also featured are rare and collectible posters for international events such as the Exposition Universelle and the Exposition de Charleroi.

In keeping with the August auction tradition, this sale boasts a robust selection of World War I and World War II posters, Soviet propaganda, and political material from England to Cuba. We are thrilled to offer both versions of the scarce Enlist poster by Fred Spear — his moving depiction of the sinking of the Lusitania.

Entertainment posters add amusement, variety, and historical interest to this sale, with an assortment of rare Buffalo Bill images, obscure German-printed circus posters, and captivating multi-sheet ads for David Devant and the Maskelyne magic extravaganzas.

This auction is rounded out by several other categories that our clients have come to expect from Swann: Art Deco, automobile, Mather Work Incentive, and sports, to name a few.