?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
DESIGNER UNKNOWN DEAR GOD, KEEP THEM SAFE! / BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS. 1942. 35x46 inches, 89x117 cm. Kroger Grocery & Baking Company. Condition B+: repaired tears, creases and minor restoration in margins and image; restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; margins trimmed. During the Second World War, private companies issued propaganda posters to express their patriotism and involvement with the war effort. These private promotions were printed in much smaller numbers than the posters issued by the U.S. Government, making surviving examples extremely rare. Perhaps the most famous non-government poster of the Second World War is the iconic female war worker "Rosie the Riveter," printed by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Certainly the next most famous is this chilling, almost surreal image published by Kroger. The grim tableau, almost guaranteed to terrify parents of school-age children, was likely very effective in getting citizens to invest more money in the war effort. This is one of three images in a series published by the grocery chain, each one a startling photographic composition of a nightmarish, what-if scenario. We believe this is the first time the poster has appeared at auction. Design for Victory p. 89.
