Hans Rudi Erdt's image of
Wright's Model A fetched $19,550.
Orville
Wright Poster Flies To $19,500 At Swann
NEW YORK CITY - Swann Galleries' August 7 sale of vintage posters
featured Hans Rudi Erdt's Wright/Flugvorführungen, Berlin, 1909,
advertising Orville Wright's Model A bi-plane flying exhibition
over Tempelhof field in Berlin, which sold for a record $19,550.
The Model A was the Wright Brothers' third attempt at producing
airplanes for mass production.
Two Art Nouveau aviation images by Charles Rambert and Georges
Villa for the Grande Semaine d'Aviation in Rouen, 1910, also
brought record prices - $6,440 and $7,475, respectively.
There was a nice selection of posters by Achille Mauzan, master
of visual puns, including Parmigiano-Reggiano Bertozzi, Milan,
1930, picturing three wide-eyed, large-nosed judges inhaling the
pungent aroma of a prize-worthy wedge of cheese, $5,750; and
Godin, Paris, depicting a tiger skin rug happily warming up in
the advertised heater's glow, $2,875.
Equally compelling in a very different style, an example by the
master of the Sachs Plakat ("object poster"), Lucian Bernhard,
arraying splendid Roka chocolate bars against a brown background,
realized $3,220.
Bidder found Fresh Long Island Oysters appetizing for $2,300.
Other diverse auction highlights included two plates by Lautrec,
Jane Avril/Jardin de Paris and Reine de Joie, from Ernst
Maindron's Les Affiches Illustres, Paris, 1896, the definitive
Nineteenth Century poster reference,$2,990; Louis Guerry's early
travel poster for Palestine, Paris, 1898, $2,530; and H. L.
Roowy's Pneu Velo Michelin, Paris, 1912, $2,300. Leonetto
Cappiello's Contratto, Turin, 1922, for the effervescent
champagne, sold for $2,300, and his clever design for Nitrolian
paint, Paris, 1929, $2,185.
Jean Gabriel Domergue's L'Hiver A Monte Carlo, 1937, and one of
A. M. Cassandre's last posters, for the Danish Encyclopedia
Mentor, Copenhagen, 1949, each brought $2,760.
Among the war propaganda pieces were Canadian Patriotic Fund,
Hamilton, 1916, a World War I poster relating to the indigenous
peoples of Canada, $2,300; H.R. Hopps's Destroy This Mad Brute,
circa 1917, a political cartoon-style image depicting the horrors
if the Germans invaded America, $4,830; and U.S. War Bonds, 1943,
a depiction of the Statue of Liberty, with lettering in English
and Yiddish, $2,185.
Notable American travel posters included John Held Jr's
Northward/The New Haven R.R., New York, circa 1930, $2,760, and
The Enchanted Isle/Martha's Vineyard, New York, 1934, with a
nighttime picnic on the beach, $5,290; as well as D. S.'s Sun
Valley "Round House," $2,990.
Finally, a placard for Fresh Long Island Oysters brought more
than seven times its high estimate at $2,300.
Prices quoted include buyer's premium.
