May 10, 2012 - Sale 2278

Sale 2278 - Lot 6

Price Realized: $ 6,480
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
LUCIAN BERNHARD (1883-1972) STEINWAY & SONS. 1910.
27x37 1/4 inches, 68 1/2x94 1/2 cm. Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin.
Condition B+ / B: repaired tears and restoration in margins and image; abrasions in image; minor overpainting in corners.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Lucian Bernhard invented a new, modern and pragmatic way to design posters. His Sachs-Plakat (Object Poster), presented objects depicted by themselves in flat colors, with no ornamentation and no shadow, against a monochromatic background with very large, bold typography. This poster for the world-renowned piano company, Steinway & Sons, is a classic example of Bernhard's style. A piano is by far the largest object Bernhard ever advertised, demonstrating how the Object Poster style could work with products on any scale. There are several different variations of this poster, including one where the printer's mark and artist's signature appear in a different place on the poster and one with an additional text line at the bottom advertising the piano showroom's address. Bernhard 39, DFP III 184 (var), Wember 69 (var), Weill 172.