Auction Highlights: Rare & Important Travel Posters — November 9, 2023

View Lots

Swann’s autumn 2023 auction of Rare & Important Travel Posters on November 9 is another wonderful, geographic tour de force, with some of the most compelling and infrequently seen images.

^{Left to right: Lot 15: Fred Taylor, Visit India / Land of Sunshine & Colour, circa 1930. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000; Lot 177: Ludwig Hohlwein, Edinburgh / It’s Quicker by Rail, circa 1933. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.}

The sale circles the globe: Australia, India, Georgia, Italy, Scotland, Canada, Poland, Norway, and Czechoslovakia—including Richard Teschner‘s early, rare image for travel to Prague via the Austrian Railway, circa 1910, and Milos Endler‘s poster for the Wagons-Lits featuring the Charles Bridge, 1929, and others.

^{Left to right: Lot 182: Designer Unknown, Bundoran / Visit Ireland, circa 1930s. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000; Lot 13: Designer Unknown, Western Australia for Sunshine and Surf, circa 1950s. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800; Lot 163: Henry George Gawthorn, Fraserburgh / L.N.E.R., circa 1930. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.}

^{Left to right: Lot 25: Hugh Murton le Fleming, Federated Malay States Railways / The Best Road, 1929. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000; Lot 132: Edmond Maurus, Bohême / Neige du Tourisme, circa 1935. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000; Lot 162: Gordon Nicoll, The Felix Hotel / Felixstowe, circa 1930. Estimate $1,500 to $2,000.}

^{Left to right: Lot 26: Java Night – Limited / Netherlands Indian State Railway, circa 1936. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000; Lot 214: Designer Unknown, All American Aircraft Show / Detroit, 1928. Estimate $700 to $1,000.}

Right: Lot 5: Rhys Williams, Qantas / A New Air Map From the Australian Viewpoint, circa 1939. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Also featured are exceptional depictions of means of transport like Elmer William Pirson‘s Curtiss School of Aviation, 1917; Rhys William‘s Qantas Empire Airways, circa 1938; an original painting featuring a locomotive from the Illinois Central Railroad painted by Bern Hill for General Motors Electro-Motive Division; and a dramatic rendering of the Java Night-Limited Railroad, circa 1930s.

^{Left to right: Lot 155: Herbert William “Compton” Bennett, Winter Sales Quickly Reached / Underground, 1926. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800; Lot 235: Phil von Phul, Ski by Rail / Ride the Snow Trains / Snoqualmie Ski Bowl, circa 1940s. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.}

^{Left to right: Lot 243: Percy Padden, Canadian Pacific Cruise to West Indies, circa 1930s. Estimate $1,500 to $2,000; Lot 62: Johann von Stein, Rotterdam Lloyd, 1931. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000; Lot 111: Leo Marfurt, Belgian National Railway / Dover-Ostend, 1932. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000; Lot 59: Walter Thomas, White Star Line / Eurooppa – Amerikka, circa 1920s. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.}

Ocean Liner companies are well represented, with sea-going depictions of Cunard Liners by Odin Rosenvinge, The Red Star Line, by Henri Cassiers, and others.

^{Left to right: Lot 213: David Klein, Hollywood / Fly TWA, circa 1956. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000; Lot 209: Edward M. Eggleston, Atlantic City / Pennsylvania Railroad, circa 1935. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.}

There is an exceptional assortment of American cities on display, including Chicago and Cleveland (by Leslie Ragan for New York Central), Hollywood and San Francisco (by David Klein—each of these the rare, earlier printings), and New York (by Chesley Bonestell of the New York Central Building and New York / Fly TWA, by Klein).