Shop for Antique Prints, Maps, Illustrated Books, Vintage Magazines, Ephemera
If space and cost considerations have hampered the temptation to collect vintage travel posters, you might consider gathering a selection of vintage travel brochures. Both rely on striking color and design to catch the eye and tempt the imagination. The collection of 1930s travel brochures for German destinations we have just been cataloguing provides many instances of miniature poster art. At left is a cover by renowned German poster artist Ludwig Hohlwein. Below are two examples of the work of Hermann Schneider, one featuring all forms of transportation (including a blimp) converging on the German state. View other examples in the "Europe" section of our Ephemera gallery (click on the link at top right of this page).
Welcome to Germany.
GERMANY)
RRP: $45.00
Pamphlet, color illustrations, 9 x 4 inches unfolding to 9 x 31 1/2 inches. Light foxing to upper edge; very good bright condition. A vintage travel brochure highlighting the arts, architecture, sports and leisure activities, food, etc, of Germany.
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Germany. Saxony.
GERMANY)
RRP: $50.00
Booklet, small color folding map tipped inside back cover, black and white photo illustrations, 24pp, index, 9 x 4 inches, color pictorial paper wrappers (softbound). Very good condition. Vintage guidebook to the Saxony region of Germany. Includes c
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Take a look at our eclectic display at the recent Portland Expo Antiques and Collectibles Show...
We juxtaposed early 1950s railroad posters (that one of the Cote d'Azur was a pleasure to spend a weekend with!) with some wonderful naval prints, and a large chromolithograph of Wellington encouraging the troops (just what I needed a couple of times during the 3 day show!)... Our next show will be the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair in October (different stock there)
Popular History: looking at 20th century Asia through printed ephemera
There was an enthusiastic audience at Asia Bookroom (Canberra, Australia) last month for my discussion of the growing interest in printed ephemera for research and collecting. With digital and physical examples on hand from the stock of oldimprints.com and Asia Bookroom, the special appeal of ephemeral printed material, both visually and in terms of the immediacy of its content, was quickly appreciated. My thanks to the engaging audience!
Pictorial Maps of the Twentieth Century
are an area of collecting that has, until recently, received little attention by dealers, collectors, and libraries. However, along with the particular rewards of an unexplored area of collecting comes the frustration of the lack of documentation regarding the creative forces behind what was an explosive cultural phenomenon in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Pictorial maps have long appealed to me because they incorporate two of my interests: a fascination with other cultures (which for someone who has had a very peripatetic upbringing means all cultures!) and a love of pictures. Therefore, as I acquire these artifacts reflecting the popular culture and design aesthetic of their day, I endeavour to research their origins. Even if produced in relatively large quantity (often given away free, some with instructions to “pin on the wall”), many of these maps are now quite scarce because of their intended ephemeral nature.
MacDonald Gill’s
Wonderground Map of London Town (1913) has always struck me as a unique product from a rather pedestrian period of map publication: an outstanding graphic — an oversized explosion of color and humor—harnessed to the goal of publicizing a burgeoning popular transportation system serving a wide public base. Over time I gathered many other maps from the 1920s and 30s that showed a clear debt to Gill’s prototype and thought of them as being appropriately grouped under the umbrella term “wonder maps.” My article exploring this genre
“MacDonald Gill: The Wonderground Map of 1913 and Its Influence” appears in the Spring 2009 issue of the
Journal of the International Map Collectors Society. In this article, I discuss what were, for me, the unexpected influences behind the creation of the Wonderground Map and its innovative features, concluding with illustrations of subsequent “wonder maps” from around the world. Copies of the Journal can be purchased from the IMCOS website at
www.imcos.org. Pictured below is a sampling of these Gill-influenced maps.
If you find yourself falling under the spell of pictorial maps,
click here to sign up for my pictorial maps listing (a brief catalog that I will email on an occasional basis). I look forward to receiving
your particular interests in this field and comments on my article and any information you can share on the artists and publishers behind these striking images which provide such an entertaining glimpse into our past.
Email me if you would like to be informed when a particular map displayed below is available for sale.
Click here to view a selection of our pictorial maps of the United States
This is a section of the Wonderground Map, showing some of its distinctive characteristics including the "speech bubbles."
Colour of an Old City. A Map of Boston Decorative and Historical. Designed by Edwin Olsen and Blake Clark, published by Houghton Mifflin 1926. Color pictographic / pictorial map, 28 x 37 inches on sheet size 28 1/4 x 37 1/2 folding as issued to 9 1/2 x 12 3/4 into color pictorial envelope.
Edwin Olsen and Blake Clark (illus).
A Kite View of Philadelphia and the Sesqui Centennial International Exposition. (Envelope title: This is a Section of the Map of Philadelphia Contained in this Envelope Size 28 1/2 x 37 1/2 inches). Color pictographic / pictorial map on sheet 28 1/2 x 37 3/4 inches, folding as issued into a color pictorial envelope 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1926.
Edwin Olsen and Blake Clark (illus).
Map of the City of Washington in the District of Columbia shewing the Architecture and History from the Most Ancient Times Down to the Present. Cover title: The Capital Map.
Color pictographic / pictorial map 27 3/4 x 36 1/2 inches on sheet size 28 x 36 3/4 folding as issued to 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 into color pictorial envelope. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston. 1926.
39375 Farrow, C.V. (illus).
A Map of the Wondrous Isle of Manhattan (The Scale is all Askew). Cover title: A Map of the Wondrous Isle of Manhattan. Color pictographic / pictorial map, 24 1/4 x 39 inches on sheet size 25 x 39 3/4 inches folding as issued to 10 x 12 3/4 into color pictorial envelope. Fuessle & Coleman. New York. 1926. On envelope: Published by the Washington Square Book Shop.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge Map. 28 1/2 x 38 inches. John Sands. Sydney. No date. Ca. 1932. This map was designed and drawn by Russell Sydney Lloyd of Bondi, Sydney; figures were drawn by Miss Vic (?) Cowdroy. Printed by John Sands, Pruitt Street, Sydney. Commemorates the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on March 19th, 1932. Printed around border: Breathes There A Man With Soul So Dead Who Never To Himself Hath Said "This is My Own, My Native Land."? If Such There Be, Go Mark Him Well!. (Sir Walter Scott)
