The Art of Persuasion

Passions+Pursuits

Vintage Hermès

Art Deco Silver

Modern First Editions

Man Ray Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Jules Cheret Emile Cardinaux Adolphe Cassandre Ludwig Hohlwein Cindy Sherman to Receive the Jewish Museum's Man Ray Award From Raging Bulls to Miserable Drips

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When the French artist Jules Chéret pioneered large-scale color lithography in the 1860s, he ushered in the age of modern advertising — and poster collecting. As l’affichomanie, the so-called poster craze, spread throughout Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these printed placards still primarily served a promotional function. Yet it is the graphic intensity of the images emblazoned on them, designed to capture the public’s attention before the posters were discarded, that makes the items so appealing to collectors today.

The field of vintage posters has grown exponentially since the late 1970s, when a critical mass of auctioneers and dealers began to promote them as collectibles. At the time, Art Nouveau was the dominant collecting category, but buying patterns have shifted. "Thirty years ago, people were more interested in turn-of-the-century images; today they’re more attracted to modern, vibrant pictures from the 1930s, ’50s or ’60s," says Richard Barclay, a Paris-based dealer who founded the Christie’s poster department and now consults for Bloomsbury Auctions, which is mounting a sale of winter-sports posters on November 24 in London.

The range of subjects posters have touted — from fashion, food and toiletries to wartime propaganda and glamorous travel by rail and jet — makes for myriad entry points into collecting them. And although prices have increased severalfold over the past three decades, the works remain remarkably accessible, most fetching between a few hundred and a few thousands dollars. There are, of course, exceptions. Movie posters, for instance: From November 12 through 14, Heritage Auction Galleries, in Dallas, is offering a poster advertising the 1932 film White Zombie with a $75,000 estimate, as well as one for the 1928 film Spies, expected to fetch more than $10,000. And works by the best-known names — Adolphe Cassandre, Ludwig Hohlwein, Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, among others — command much higher sums: Toulouse-Lautrec’s first poster, the emblematic 1891 Moulin Rouge, brought $300,000 last year at Swann Auction Galleries, in New York, which is conducting one of its five annual poster sales on November 18. Even these top-tier examples, however, are relative bargains.

Commercial posters weren’t numbered when they were made, so the edition sizes can’t be nailed down. We do know, though, that typical runs ranged from several hundred to a few thousand. Most sheets that survive were never hung; someone close to the press set them aside for safekeeping. Often silk-screens or lithographs and by their very nature ephemeral, the works are fragile. Condition is thus a crucial component of value, although some collectors will buy damaged goods if they believe the image may not surface again. Unlike with some other artworks, "proper restoration will enhance the value of a poster," says Jack Rennert, president of Poster Auctions International, in New York, which is offering 500 lots in a November 8 sale expected to net $2 million.

Good starting points for neophytes are the International Vintage Poster Dealers Association, a consortium of more than 80 specialists; and the International Vintage Poster fairs in Chicago, New York and San Francisco. As with any collectible category, the most important thing is to buy what you like or what draws you in. "Posters are meant to sell, to convince, to compel," says Rennert. "If it doesn’t do that in a very direct and captivating way, it’s not a good poster.

"The Art of Persuasion" originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2009 Table of Contents.