Sale 2459 - Rare & Important Travel Posters, October 26, 2017

MONTAGUE BIRRELL BLACK (1884-1964) 5A c THE BLUE FUNNEL LINE / TO SOUTH AFRICA AUSTRALIA STRAITS & CHINA. Circa 1920s. 40x25 inches, 101 1 / 2 x63 1 / 2 cm. Condition A: minor repaired tears at edges; text banner affixed to bottom. Montague Birrell Black produced many of the paintings, postcards and posters for the White Star Line through the 1920s. He also worked for other shipping companies, like the French Line and Blue Star Line, the London Underground and the British Railway companies. In many instances, he was able to capture painting-like detail in his posters, as in this example, with the intense, luminous depiction of the sunset and the twilight shades of the ocean. For one of Britain’s largest shipping companies, the Blue Funnel Line remains far less known than her contemporaries, because they had substantially fewer posters produced than other companies. [800/1,200]