The New York Sale: Vintage Posters

Swann Auction Galleries Sale #2749: Fall auction of Rare & Important Travel Posters offers exceptional American, French, British, Italian, German, Canadian, Indian and Australian posters.

If residing in New York City isn’t enough of a daily reminder of the glory of this metropolis, we are proud and delighted to bring to market our New York Sale. This year's selection of books, historical prints, maps, paintings, photographs, posters, and prints is as joyful as a walk in Central Park in early spring—invigorating and happy-making.

Many of the city's wonderful aspects will be represented, including bridges, rivers, subways, buildings, parks, people, personalities, historical events, and locations like Lincoln Center, Herald Square, the World Trade Center, Greenwich Village, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Woolworth Building, even the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

For those who appreciate photographs, there are classic works by Berenice Abbott, Alfred Eisenstadt, Louis Faurer, Stieglitz, Feininger, Ruth Orkin, plus many others. Additionally, there are many historic and captivating images from more recent times, including Robert A. Cumins' suite of six photographs depicting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Vintage poster fans will be able to relish works by Nembhard Culin, Weimer Pursell, Milton Glaser and Saul Bass, to name a few: David Klein’s iconic TWA image featuring Times Square, the original 1956 printing; Leslie Ragan’s Rockefeller Center Poster for the New York Central Lines, circa 1936; Horace Taylor’s wonderfully modern image for the Royal Mail Lines, showing red-shadowed skyscrapers reaching into the blue starry sky forming an abstract but immediately recognizable image of the American flag; and the 1913 poster advertising the Modern Art Show at the armory right across the street from Swann Galleries, where America was first introduced to Modern Art.

Art aficionados can marvel at works by John Sloan, Abraham Walkowitz, Bernard Buffet, Armin Landeck, Andy Warhol, Richard Haas, Joseph Delaney and many others. Wonderful Art Deco-era images include Stow Wengenroth’s serene, snow-filled lithograph "Lower Fifth Avenue" and several of Martin Lewis’ entrancingly detailed etchings, such as 1928's "Rain on Murray Hill" and his 1931 "Cathedral Steps."

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