Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen’s six-sheet billboard for Affiches Charles Verneau, La Rue, 1896, led the 410-lot sale, finishing at $62,500.
Review by W.A. Demers; Photos Courtesy Poster Auctions International
NEW YORK CITY — The 92nd Rare Posters Auction from Poster Auctions International (PAI) on March 3 featured rare and iconic images from a century of poster design. The collection included Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern and contemporary lithographs as well as decorative panels, maquettes and original works. At press time, the sale total was $1.5 million. PAI is known, however, for its Second Chance sales, which offer unsold lots over a seven-day period, so that figure is bound to increase.
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen’s six-sheet billboard for Affiches Charles Verneau, La Rue, 1896, led the 410-lot sale, finishing at $62,500. Wine Spectator characterized the poster as “One of Steinlen’s finest lithographic achievements…[a] bustling street scene…alive with an assortment of colorful Montmartre types, prominent among them the artist’s daughter, Colette, with a hoop, being carefully led by her mother, Emilie.” It cleverly juxtaposes working class folks with the smartly dressed bourgeois, giving them equal dignity.
And no sale at Poster Auctions International could be said to be complete without a choice selection of works by the Art Nouveau master, Alphonse Mucha. This event offered 39 lots of his most beloved posters and rare works — even a non-poster entry, the rare 1900 Printemps pocket watch, which featured his 1896 Seasons imagery and was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Estimated $40/50,000, it was the second highest lot in the sale, finishing at $55,000. Georges Favre-Jacot, the founder of Zenith watches, had asked Mucha to contribute a design and the artist adapted his 1896 Seasons imagery for the four designs. In this case, his Autumn panel was engraved in niello silver by Huguenin Frères. An extra feature in this lot was an Art Nouveau bronze statuette that was used by brands like Zenith to display the watch.
This rare 1900 Printemps pocket watch, which featured Alphonse Mucha’s 1896 Seasons imagery, was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Estimated $40/50,000, it was the second highest lot in the sale, finishing at $55,000.
Mucha’s Triner’s Bitter Wine, 1907, surprised by earning $30,000 against an estimate of $4/5,000. According to catalog notes, this was one of the artist’s rare commercial works. Joseph Triner was a Chicago chemist who devised a potion for stomach maladies by mixing various herbs with California red grape wine. In one of his handbills, he advertised the elixir as beneficial especially to “Bohemians, Germans, Poles, Slovenians, Hungarians, Croatians, and Lithuanians.” Like Mucha, he, too, was a Czech immigrant.
Paul Colin (1892-1986), who engagingly captured Parisian nightlife in his works, was represented in the sale by 12 posters, the leading one of which was his 1926 Blackbirds maquette, selling for $57,200. Here in this 27¾-by-40-1/8-inch gouache and ink maquette, a preparatory work for his trio of minstrels, documented the 1926 opening night for the Blackbirds at the Théâtre-Restaurant des Ambassadeurs.
A poster hand-signed by Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), P. Sescau / Photographe, 1894, paid homage to the then-nascent medium that had a big impact on French artists. Paul Sescau, according to catalog notes, was a friend of the artist, the first in his field to photograph Toulouse-Lautrec’s work. Here, a woman (possibly Jane Avril) in a red print gown holds a lorgnette in her black-gloved hand, looking as if she is fleeing from the camera, The 31½-by-24-inch poster left the gallery at $46,800.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, P. Sescau / Photographe, 1894, was bid to $45,000.
Among the sale’s collections by the leaders of lithography, there were 18 rare works by Leonetto Cappiello — the father of modern advertising — that were auctioned. His 1923 Figaro maquette came within low estimate to $25,000. This preparatory work, larger than the eventual poster, appeared to be essentially finished, with only minor changes made for the printed version.
Travel posters are always a staple at PAI auctions, and no exception here as Emil Cardinaux’s Palace Hotel / St Moritz, 1900, claimed $16,250. One of Cardinaux’s most evocative posters — perhaps because of its crossover interest among collectors of Art Deco, winter, sports, travel and Swiss posters, it not only promotes St Moritz as a winter sports hot spot but also conjures a relaxing getaway through the elegantly bundled lady and her party conversing as skaters glide past.
A bold portrait of Josephine Baker, 1931, by Jean Chassaing stands as one of the rarest of all Josephine Baker images, characterized as an Art Deco masterwork that depicts her, recognizably stylized, against a background that cleaves tan and dropout-white. It commanded $23,750.
Prices given include the buyer’s premium as stated by the auction house. The firm’s next sale is set for June, date to be announced. For more information, www.posterauctions.com or 212-787-4000.
