Rare & Important Travel Posters: Nicholas D. Lowry’s Picks for the November 23, 2021 Sale

Nicholas D. Lowry takes us around the world in under five minutes, as he shares a standout selection of exceptional vintage posters from our November 23, 2021 sale of Rare & Important Travel Posters.

European Travel Posters

There are a number of wonderful images from across continental Europe in the auction, including some of the classic French Art Deco images of Roger Broders, as well as great images from Germany, Austria, and even Spain. Switzerland features prominently in the sale, and while the Alpine country is usually demarcated by posters advertising its many ski venues, this auction features images promoting other aspects of the country’s glory. Especially fine are three very early examples (circa 1890s) of posters advertising Swiss lakes and glaciers.

Italian Travel Posters

Italy also features quite prominently, again with two very curious and delightful early posters promoting travel to Sicily, circa 1900. Italy’s main tourist cities and other attractions were captured wonderful by the poster artists of the 1930s, with Rome, Milan, Venice and Florence all figuring in enchanting images.

Eastern European Travel Posters

A small handful of exotic and unusual posters from Eastern Europe—big game hunting in the USSR, with Dubrovnik and Upper Silesia. Four scarce posters promoting travel to Czechoslovakia round out this section.

South American Travel Posters

While poster art is primarily considered a European art form, it was also alive and well in South America, and this auction features a number of very unusual and desirable posters for Uruguay, Guatemala, Brazil and Ecuador.

American Travel

One of the real highlights of the auction are items from a private collection featuring posters of the American West, including Arizona, California (Los Angeles and San Francisco), and the National Parks.

The sale also has a section of the most iconic and scarce New York City travel posters that have ever come to market at a single time. From the monumental images of skyscrapers in the 1920s and ’30s generated by the New York Central Lines railway to the New York World’s Fair of 1939, to the bustle and hustle of Times Square and even a defunct helicopter line (New York Airways) which used to land on top of the Pan Am Building (now known as the MetLife building) in midtown Manhattan.

Do you have a rare travel poster we should look at?

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