NEW YORK – On Thursday, March 12th, Posters Please—the world’s leading dealer of authentic vintage posters—will be offering over 400 lots of rare, original posters from the 20th century. This will be the first sale of its kind ever, opening up a previously untapped market to the auction community.
Aimed at first-time buyers, with many reserves as low as $100, this sale offers the unique opportunity to begin collecting works of art that will only increase in value.
With sections dedicated to politics, music, fashion, entertainment, travel, and sports, this sale follows the trajectory of pop culture from the 1950s through the 1980s. Bring back what once hung on the walls of your (or your parents’) dorm room. From Levy’s to Levis, Fu Manchu to Nixon, Nina Simone to Paul Simon, the Stenberg Brothers to the Marx Brothers, Mao to Tao, no sale has ever been filled with this many iconic images or notable personalities.
Highlights include a complete set of the famous San Francisco Rock posters, the first printing of Ricky Jay’s ‘Cards As Weapons’ poster and book, the ghoulish advertisements of Edward Gorey, Gunther Kieser’s concert images, a half-naked Elvis, the Beatles, Andy Warhol, Herman Miller, the cult images of Yokoo, and both the political and the erotic posters of Tomi Ungerer, of Schoolhouse Rock fame.
Notable artists featured in the sale are Celestino Piatti, Seymour Chwast, Ivan Chermayeff, Paul Davis, Raymond Savignac, David Byrd, René Magritte, Alexander Calder, Erte, Joe Eula, Jean-Michel Folon, Milton Glaser, Richard Lindner, Michael Prechtl, Charles Kiffer, Rick Griffen, Wes Wilson, Bernard Villemot, Herbert Leupin, Pierre Fix-Masseau, Weimer Pursell, Tomoko Miho, Peter Teubner, Henri Matisse, William Klein, Al Hirschfeild, Keith Haring, and Pablo Picasso.
Accompanying this schmorgasboard of artistic talent are such (in)famous subjects as Allen Ginsberg, Watergate, Houdini, Alvin Ailey, Marcel Marceau, Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Folies Bergere, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, the Supremes, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, The Who, The Grateful Dead, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Simon & Garfunkel, Lauren Bacall, Cuba, the New Yorker, the Giants, Babe Ruth, Laurel & Hardy, Josephine Baker, Bobby Short, Maurice Chevalier, Mahalia Jackson, and Dizzy Gillespie.
It’s time to go All the Way with LBJ, to vote Fu Manchu for Mayor, to express your awe for the poetry of Yevtushenko, to demand Safe Energy Now, to embrace Big Nudes, to have a Flask of W.C. Fields, to say Hooray for Captain Spaulding, to use Cards as Weapons, to tune in to Masterpiece Theatre, to dance at the Mod Ball, to listen to Jazz, to see War in Concert, to climb aboard the Yellow Submarine, to Step Out in Levi’s Jeans, to wear Chanel No. 5, to feast at the Herman Miller Picnic, to read the New Yorker, to take all 65 Bridges to New York, to witness The Fight, to Join the Free and Fat Society, and to take part in the Electric Circus.
