?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
LUDWIG HOHLWEIN (1874-1949) DIRECT CHINA COTTON IMPORTERS. Circa 1910. 32 1/2x23 1/4 inches. Vereinigte Druckereien & Kunstanstalten, Munich. Condition A: faint time-staining at edges. Paper. This extremely rare image is in many ways the sister poster to Hohlwein's better-known and better-referenced image for Marco Polo Tee (see Swann Modernist Poster Auction # 1935, lot 14). Both images are made using the same composition: a central figure against a black background, surrounded by three green squares. Here, one of the squares contains the text of the poster. Hohlwein often used depictions of the local population to promote products from Asia, Africa or South America. With this image, he proves that his draughtsmanship is so deft, that merely by changing the central figure, he can re-employ an existing layout and color scheme without fear of being boring or repetitive. This is one of two images he created for the New Hampshire-based company.
