New York, NY, USA, February 23, 2021 — The 83rd Rare Posters Auction from Poster Auctions International slated for Sunday, March 14th features masterpieces and rarities from a century of poster design. Top artists include Cappiello, Cassandre, Mucha, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
All 500 lots will be on view to the public February 26-March 13. The auction will be held live in PAI’s gallery at 26 West 17th Street in New York City, as well as online at posterauctions.com, beginning promptly at 11am Eastern time.
Jack Rennert, president of Poster Auctions International, Inc., called this auction “one of our best collections yet,” adding, “Not only do we have the beloved designs that collectors expect to see from us, but we are also offering a number of especially rare designs that we have not seen at auction in many years.”
The auction will begin with 30 Winter Sports posters from around the world. Emil Cardinaux’s 1920 Palace Hotel / St. Moritz is one of his most evocative designs (est. $8,000-$10,000), while Roger Broders’ Winter Sports in the French Alps presents the joy of a ski day (est. $5,000-$6,000). Further highlights include Leonetto Cappiello’s 1929 Superbagnères-Luchon (est. $5,000-$6,000), Ludwig Hohlwein’s 1936 Olympic Winter Games / Garmisch-Partenkirchen (est. $2,000-$2,500), and four images from Sascha Maurer, including his graphic Ski Lake Placid (est. $1,700-$2,000).
Next, 15 designs for the Mele department store and Italian culture will be offered. Important works include Cappiello’s 1903 Mele / Novità per Signora (est. $8,000-$10,000), Leopoldo Metlicovitz’s 1904 Mele & Ci. / Confezioni per Uomo (est. $4,000-$5,000), Adolfo Hohenstein’s 1898 Iris (est. $3,500-$4,000), and Leonardo Bistolfi’s 1902 Prima Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte (est. $8,000-$10,000).
For collectors of transit posters, options abound. Twenty designs for ships will be auctioned, including A. Schindeler’s epic 1891 design, Voyage Autour du Monde / Round the World (est. $17,000-$20,000) and Henri Cassiers’ circa 1899 Red Star Line / New York-Antwerp (est. $2,000-$2,500). Aviation buffs will delight in Charles Ramberts’ 1910 Grande Semaine d’Aviation (est. $6,000-$7,000), the anonymous 1912 Panama and the Canal from an Aeroplane (est. $6,000-$8,000), and Jupp Wiertz’s 1936 Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (est. $10,000-$12,000). A dozen posters for Air India and Indian travel will be up for bidding, including several whimsical images from Tomi Ungerer (each est. $1,000-$1,200).
In the bicycle section, notable works include the circa 1895 Cycles Gladiator (est. $25,000-$30,000), the circa 1884 design for Columbia Bicycles (est. $3,000-$4,000), and the especially rare circa 1925 Bayerische Motoren Works / BMW (est. $2,500-$3,000), all by anonymous designers. For fans of automobile posters, highlights include Geo Ham’s 1935 Monaco Grand Prix (est. $17,000-$20,000) and Caspary-Blu’s circa 1936 Grosser Bergpreis v. Deutschland / Freiburg (est. $5,000-$6,000).
A number of choice images from Swiss and German artists will come up for bidding. Highlights include Eduardo Garcia Benito’s 1929 Candee (est. $4,000-$5,000), Lucian Bernhard’s 1910 Manoli (est. $4,000-$5,000), Ludwig Hohlwein’s 1910 Yellowstone-Park (est. $6,000-$7,000) and his 1912 Zoologischer Garten München (est. $10,000-$12,000), Fritz Rumpf’s circa 1914 Söhnlein Rheingold (est. $2,500-$3,000), and Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters’ 1922 Kleine Dada Soirée (est. $6,000-$8,000).
From the father of modern advertising—Leonetto Cappiello—40 designs will be available. A number of these have never been seen at auction before, including the 1901 Musica e Musicisti (est. $14,000-$17,000), Evian-Cachat (est. $5,000-$6,000), Floravene Gravena (est. $6,000-$8,000), and his 1935 Jako (est. $4,000-$5,000). His most beloved works will also be up for grabs, including Maurin Quina from 1906 (est. $2,500-$3,000), the 1910 Lampe Osmine (est. $5,000-$6,000), and the six-sheet 1929 Parapluie-Revel (est. $4,000-$5,000).
From A. M. Cassandre, five of his most magnificent works will be at auction: the 1927 Étoile du Nord (est. $14,000-$17,000), the rare smaller format of his 1936 Simca / La Cinq Ne Coûte Que 9.900 frs (est. $12,000-$15,000), the 1929 Flèche d’Argent / Aéropostale (est. $15,000-$20,000), and the classic 1938 Normandie / 60 Voyages (est. $10,000-$12,000).
Fans of Art Nouveau will delight in our selection of 24 works by Alphonse Mucha. Important images include his 1898 Waverley Cycles (est. $20,000-$25,000), the before-text printing of his 1896 The Seasons (est. $40,000-$50,000), his 1898 Job (est. $8,000-$10,000), the 1899 Moët & Chandon (est. $30,000-$35,000), the 1902 The Stars (est. $60,000-$70,000), and his 1912 Sixth Sokol Festival (est. $30,000-$40,000).
For further masterpieces of the Belle Époque, look no further than Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This auction features 12 of his most iconic designs, including the 1896 Troupe de Mlle Églantine (est. $30,000-$35,000), his 1899 Le Jockey (est. $50,000-$60,000), the 1893 Aristide Bruant Dans Son Cabaret (est. $35,000-$45,000), the “qui?” variant of his 1894 L’Artisan Moderne (est. $25,000-$30,000), and his 1895 La Revue Blanche (est. $17,000-$20,000).
Public viewings will be held daily from February 26-March 13. For more information and to order the catalogue, visit www.posterauctions.com. You may call the gallery at (212) 787-4000. For general inquiries, the email address is info@rennertsgallery.com.
About Poster Auctions International:
Poster Auctions International is one of the very few auction houses in the world dealing exclusively in rare, original vintage posters. Since the late 1980s, PAI has held auctions 3-4 times a year. Poster aficionados, enthusiasts, collectors, galleries, and leading art museums around the world value Rennert’s Gallery (PAI) as one of their most trusted venues for successful consignments, unique buying opportunities, unequaled experience in the field, and an impeccable eye for quality in original poster art. The gallery, at 26 W. 17th Street, New York City, hosts rotating exhibitions of original poster art, as well as a bookstore of research and coffee-table volumes on poster art, and an extensive research archive open to the public by appointment. PAI additionally offers for sale a wide catalogue of “Contemporary Classics” poster originals from the 1960s to the 1980s, with specialties in local New York topics, plus late 20th-century Polish, Japanese, and Israeli designers. To learn more, visit www.posterauctions.com.