The Vintage Posters department, led by Swann President and Principal Auctioneer Nicholas D. Lowry and Associate Director Lauren Cooper, conducts at least four sales per year: two broad auctions that encompass a wide range of eras and styles, an annual sale of Rare & Important Travel Posters, and an offering of Graphic Design, which offers modernist posters and ephemera from around the world. As the only major auction house with a department dedicated to this field, our sales have become resources for collectors and scholars alike.

Top prices include $149,000 for Man Ray’s Keeps London Going, 1938; $137,000 for Charles Loupot’s Phillippossian Automobiles / Geneve, 1920, and $62,500 for BIL - BOL, 1907, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Important single-owner auctions include The Victor Ryerson Collection, 2022; Alphonse Mucha & Masters of Art Nouveau: The Harry C. Meyerhoff Collection, 2017; The Gail Chisholm Collection, 2018; Tennis & Sports Posters: Collection of the Schwartz Family & Tennis Corporation of America, 2024; and The Julius Paul Collection of Posters, 2013.

Swann’s Vintage Posters specialists contribute to the house’s multi-departmental auctions, including LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History, The Artists of the WPA, and The Subculture Sale. Standout works from these auctions feature posters from the gay rights movements, WPA advertisements and designs for the state parks system, countercultural posters from the 1960s, and more.