THE ITEM:
ORIGINAL SET OF 12 MINIATURE SUBWAY CAR CARDS, ISSUED BY
NEW YORK SUBWAY ADVERTISING CO. INC.
DESIGNED TO PRESENT NEW AND ORIGINAL CAR CARD TREATMENT BY SOME OF THE UNITED STATES FOREMOST POSTER-ARTISTS:
E. McKNIGHT KAUFER (2X)
Edward McKnight Kauffer (14 December 1890 – 22 October 1954)was an American-born artist noted for his avant garde graphic design and poster art, especially in Britain
Edward Kauffer was born on December 14, 1890, in Great Falls, Montana. By 1910 he had moved to San Francisco working as a bookseller and studying art at the California School of Design from 1910 to 1912. At around this time Professor Joseph McKnight of the University of Utah became aware of Kauffer's work, sponsored him and paid to send him to Paris for further study. In gratitude Kauffer took his sponsor's name as a middle name.
Kauffer stopped in Chicago for six months in 1912-1913 and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. While there he witnessed the Armory Show, one of the first major exhibitions to introduce the styles of modernism to American viewers. This likely had a major impact on Kauffer, who would work in many of the same styles throughout his career. He arrived in Paris in 1913 and studied at the Académie Moderne until 1914.
Kauffer moved to London upon the start of the First World War, and remained there for most of his career. He was briefly associated with Robert Bevan's Cumberland Market Group.
Kauffer may be best known for the 140 posters that he produced for London Underground, and later London Transport. The posters span many styles: many show abstract influences, including futurism, cubism, and vorticism; others evoke impressionist influences such as Japanese woodcuts.
He created posters for Shell Oil and other commercial clients, and also illustrated books and book covers. Later he also became interested in textiles, interior design and theatrical design.
He returned to New York City in 1940 at the beginning of the Second World War, and tried to find work in advertising. He struggled in the more competitive atmosphere until he was approached to do a series of posters for American Airlines in 1947. American Airlines remained his primary client until his death in 1954
(WIKIPEDIA)
PAUL RAND (1X)
Paul Rand (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs's NeXT. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design.
(WIKIPEDIA)
ERIK NITSCHE (1X)
Erik Nitsche (September 7, 1908 - November 14, 1998) was a pioneer in the design of books, annual reports, and other printed material that relied on meticulous attention to the details of page composition, the elegance of simple type presentation, and the juxtaposition of elements on a page. His hallmarks were impeccably clear design, brilliant colors, smart typography, and an adherence to particular geometric foundations.
(WIKIPEDIA)
JEAN CARLU (1X)
Jean Carlu (Bonnières-sur-Seine, France, 1900 - 1997) was a French graphic designer, specialised in posters. He made posters during World War II to promote an increase in American production.
Jean Carlu started his career as a professional poster-designer in 1919, after a competition by a producer of dental aids (Glycodont) in 1918. From 1919 until 1921 he served as an illustrator, after which he worked at an agency that designed advertisements. In that period he designed his first poster in art deco style (for The Kid by Charlie Chaplin). He was attracted by cubism and by the works of Juan Gris and Albert Gleizes. He was one of the first who realised that to fix a trademark in the minds of consumers a process needs to be gone through in which schematic forms and expressive colours are applied. These are the characteristics that give his posters and other works their distinguishable quality.
The fame of Carlu rests mainly on two posters: for Monsavon and for the Théâtre Pigalle. He also designed a pioneering label for the 1924 vintage of Château Mouton-Rothschild
(WIKIPEDIA)
OTIS SHEPARD (2X)
Otis Franklyn Shepard (1893-1969)
"..... Shepard was born in Kansas. He studied at Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco. Winner of many national awards, he is one of America's foremost poster designers, having pioneerd in modernizing poster art in this country ...."
JOSEPH BINDER (1X)
Joseph Binder (born 3 March 1898 in Vienna, † 25 June 1972 in Vienna) was an Austrian graphic designer.
(WIKIPEDIA)
PAUL SMITH (1X)
".... Paul Smith, born in Minnesota in 1907. Wrote copy for five years, but changed into art directing in 1930 because 6-H pencils poked holes in his pockets. Medal awards in the 1930's in the Art Directors Club of Chicago and the New York Art Directors Club ...... "
RICHARD FRANKLIN HARKER (1X)
"..... Harker studied with Grant Wood ion 1930 and 1931, then at American Academy in Chicago. Well known on West Coast and Chicago for package and display design but main interests are in poster work and general illustration ... "
WULF STAPELFELDT (1X)
"..... Wulf Stapelfeldt was born in Germany in 1909. He spent three and a half years in art schools at Hanau and Offenbach. He also studied lettering under Rudolf Koch at Offenbach. In 1930 Stapelfeldt came to the USA where he has worked in a lithographic house and in advertising art studios servicing many of the country's foremost advertising agencies ....."
ROBERT OSBORN (1X)
Robert Chesley Osborn (1904–1994) was an American satiric cartoonist, illustrator and author.
Osborn enlisted when World War II began, hoping to become a U.S. Navy pilot However, the Navy apparently decided that he would be better employed with his hand wrapped around a pen rather than around a joystick: he was soon learning, then applying the art of "speed drawing", under the command of the photographer Edward Steichen in a special information unit in which pilot training manuals were produced. Osborn began drawing cartoons of a pilot who was hapless, arrogant, ignorant and perpetually blundering in ways that put himself and his crew at unnecessary risk. The name of this character was "Dilbert the Pilot", and "Dilbert" was soon to become a slang term used to refer to "sailor who is a foul-up or a screwball." Scott Adams credits Osborn as an indirect source of inspiration for the main character in his own Dilbert cartoons. It is not certain how many drawings Osborn produced for Navy manuals; estimates range from 2,000 to 40,000. His Dilbert was used in numerous educational posters for Navy pilots, appeared in the New York Times and Life magazine; for a while, "dilbert" became a synonym for "blunder" for Navy pilots.
After Osborn's stint in the Navy ended in 1946, he wrote a book called War is No Damn Good!, including a nightmarish skull-like depiction of an atomic bomb's mushroom cloud drawn only two weeks after Hiroshima, which prompted critic Steve Heller to call it "the first antiwar book of the nuclear age." The title alluded to cartoonist William Steig's caption, "People are no damn good." Osborn later produced political cartoons, ridiculing Senator Joseph McCarthy and a number of presidents, from Lyndon Baines Johnson through Ronald Reagan.His cartoons for magazines were frequently published in The New Republic, and also appeared in Fortune, Harper's, Life, Look, Esquire, and House & Garden. He was a political activist for a number of causes, including nuclear disarmament
(WIKIPEDIA)
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COULOURS / TEXT / ILLUSTRATIONS:
FRONT-SIDES:
FULL COLOUR MINI-PRINTS OF THE ORIGINAL POSTERS
NRS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 AND 10 HAVE THE ARTISTS SIGNATURE PRINTED
BACK-SIDES:
PROMOTIONAL ADVERTISING IN TEXT FOR THE NEW YORK SUBWAYS ADVERTISING COMPANY AND A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY ON THE EXECUTIVE DESIGNERS (AS SOMETIMES QUOTED WHEN THERE WAS NO INFO ON WIKIPEDIA)
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SIZED:
13 x 21 CM
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THE PUBLISHER:
NEW YORK SUBWAYS ADVERTISING COMPANY, INC.
630 FIFTH AVE.
NEW YORK 20, N.Y.
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CONDITION:
ALL CARDS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION, SOME MINOR RUBBING AND DISCOLOURING, CORNERS AND EDGES VERY LIGHTLY TO HARDLY BUMPED
SOME VERY LIGHTLY CRACKED BENDS ON CARD NR. 6 (JOSEPH BINDER) TOP-LEFT-CORNER AND CARDS NR. 4 (JEAN CARLU) AND NR. 1. (E. McKNIGHT KAUFFER) BOTTOM-LEFT-CORNER
ALL SHOWING AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE ON PHOTOGRAPHS, MORE PHOTO'S/INFO ON REQUEST
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S H I P P I N G
THIS VERY SPECIAL ITEM WILL BE SHIPPED WORLDWIDE ON OUR EXPENSES WITH REGISTERED AND INSURED MAIL, WRAPPED WITH OUR BEST OF CARES
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