Oct 15, 2020 - Sale 2547

Sale 2547 - Lot 116

Price Realized: $ 1,875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

JOHN HELD, JR. (1889-1958)

THE NEW HAVEN R.R. / NORTHWARD. Circa 1930.


42x28 1/4 inches, 106 1/2x71 3/4 cm. Plampin Litho Co., New York.
Condition A / A-: small repaired tears at edges; minor creases in margins and image.

In his classic cartoon style, Held colorfully shows golfers, flappers and others all heading "Northward," along with the migrating ducks depicted above them. Having created advertisements for the New Haven Railroad since 1924, "Held became known for his 'outrageous combinations of violent hues,' of which Northward! is a fine example" (Zega, 63). The New Haven Railroad was an essential means of transportation in New England, and "by 1929, the company reached the peak of its operational reach, controlling 2,131 miles of track in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts" (New Haven to Boston, p. 29). Held p. 91, Zega 65.