A. ROQUIN (DATES UNKNOWN) CUNARD WHITE STAR. 1938. 39x24 inches, 99x61 cm. Nadal, Paris. Condition A: minor creases in margins, some affecting image. Nadal was a multi-purpose advertising studio that not only designed posters and brochures, but also created a variety of advertising objects for their clients. Among their respected and important clientele were Bugatti, Renault and the French branch of the White Star Cunard Line. H.M.S. Queen Mary, "the Queen of the Atlantic," was launched in 1936 and became the fiercest competitor to the famed Normandie in her bid to win the coveted Blue Riband (fastest crossing of the Atlantic). This stock poster (the blank space in the middle could be filled in by any ticket agency or promotional company), with the gradation from a printed solid blue sky to the sharp photography of the skyscrapers, is a rare example of the use of photography in French advertising in the 1930s.
