Crossing the finish line for $35,000 was this poster for Grosser Masaryk Preis in Brno by Walter Gotschke (Silesian, 1912-2000), 1935, published by V. Neubert A Synové, Prague, 49¼ by 36¼ inches ($30/40,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
NEW YORK CITY — At Swann Auction Galleries on April 24, 100 lots of Art Deco posters were offered to celebrate 100 years since the establishment of the Art Deco design movement at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925. Nicholas Lowry, Swann’s director of vintage posters, said, “We are thrilled to offer 100 lots in honor of the 100th anniversary of the defining 1925 Parisian exhibition. The posters are still as breathtaking and fresh as the day they were created.”
The auction, titled Art Deco at 100: Iconic Posters from the William W. Crouse Collection, realized $403,585 with an average lot value at an increase when evaluated in comparison to last year’s comparable sale, according to Kelsie Jankowski, head of communications for Swann. Additionally, Jankowski reported having 102 registered bidders.
Lowry wrote, “the William W. Crouse collection is replete with a pan-European survey of graphic design.” Considered to be “the most significant private collection of its kind,” Crouse’s postered were published in Vendome Press’s 2013 The Art Deco Poster and exhibited in “Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde” at Poster House in New York City from September 2023 through February 2024.
Two posters, both featuring cars, tied to achieve the top price of $35,000. Besting its $20,000 high estimate to make that mark was Robert Louis’s 1929 poster for the Pierce-Arrow Company’s Cousin Carron Pisart dealership. As stated in the catalog, “Cousin Carron and Pisart was one of the pre-eminent automobile dealerships in Brussels in the 1920s and 30s and represented the American Pierce-Arrow company.” The poster’s design was a play on the company’s name, with a car and the words “Pierce Arrow” superimposed on an arrow being pulled through a steering wheel-form bow.
Robert Louis’s 1929 poster for Pierce-Arrow / Cousin Carron Pisart, published by Weissenbruch, Brussels, 25½ by 39¼ inches, drove off the lot for $35,000 ($15/20,000).
Matching the sale-high $35,000 was automative illustrator Walter Gotschke’s poster for the 1935 Grosser Masaryk Preis. With the race’s location and date at the top of the poster (“Brno 29.9.1935”), this was a German edition published by V. Neubert A Synové in Prague. The auction catalog noted that this poster, depicting a Mercedes-Benz W25s — likely after the car driven by Luigi Fagioli in the previous year — was “one of the earliest posters he designed and arguably his most graphic.”
Another automotive poster was Charles Loupot’s advertisement for Voisin Automobiles. Published in 1923 by Devambez, Paris, this poster was one of two commissioned by luxury car manufacturer Gabriel Voisin. This example, which achieved $15,000, featured a small red car above the company’s name and winged logo, taking up the bottom third of the sheet with the rest being a minimalistic all-white background.
Typically well-represented in these sales was one of the preeminent French Art Deco graphic designers, Adolphe Mouron Cassandre. As such, 10 lots by Cassandre were offered in this sale, led by his 1927 poster for the French newspaper Le Progrès. The design featured the silhouette of a man with an arrow, symbolizing forward progress. According to Swann’s auction catalog, “This is one of Cassandre’s rarest posters; we could locate only three other copies at auction since 1993”; it went out for $30,000.
This poster for the French newspaper Le Progrès by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre (French, 1901-1968), published by Hachard & Cie., Paris, in 1927, 31½ by 41 inches, $30,000 ($25/35,000).
One of Cassandre’s earlier works, a 1925 advertisement for Cycles Brilliant, was bid to $17,500. Cassandre developed the image out of circles with just three ink colors and strategic use of white space, and the catalog note for this work stated, “Although this is one of Cassandre’s earlier posters, it is also one of his most daring attempts to stylize the human body.”
Two other Cassandre posters, both for ship lines, each achieved $12,500. A German edition poster for Italian lines, published in 1936, showed three ships on top of a large globe and advertised “Italia – Cosulich / Lloyd Triestino – Adria.” Smaller text at the top of the sheet read “Italienische Linien Nach Allen Weltteilen,” or “Italian Lines To All Parts Of The World.” The other poster was advertising a new line, between Holland and America, aboard the Statendam. Designed in 1928, this poster was published in Rotterdam and showed a closeup view of the ship’s stacks, funnels and ventilation cowls, with smoke trailing behind in its wake.
Advertising the New York Central System’s 16-hour New 20th Century Limited line between New York and Chicago, a 1939 poster by Leslie Ragan finished at $21,250. The poster featured an image of the train, which was designed by Henry Dreyfuss, with billowing smoke and its reflection in the water beneath the tracks, and it was published by Latham Litho. Co., of Long Island City, N.Y.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.swangalleries.com or 212-254-4710.
