?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
OTTO BAUMBERGER PKZ. 1923. 50x35 1/2 inches. Wolfsberg, Zurich. Condition A-: creases in image. Baumberger was one of the most prolific Swiss poster artists, with well over 200 designs to his credit, including many images that were used posthumously. Beginning in 1917 he regularly worked for PKZ, and he became a close friend (and advisor to) Emile Huber, PKZ's advertising director. This poster is not only the best he produced for the company but is also one of the icons in poster history. The tweed coat is rendered in near-photographic perfection to the point where you can practically feel the fabric. Baumberger took a totally new approach to advertising by ingeniously incorporating the poster's text into the image in the form of the label in the coat. With this poster Baumberger cemented his role as master of the "Object Poster," a title he earned four years earlier with a classic image of a top hat, and began the trend of "New Objectivity" within the Swiss school of graphic design. Mention should also be made as to the outstanding quality of the lithography, and the consistent good work of the Wolfensberger printing house; without whose quality work no such tour-de-force posters would have been possible. A sensation from the day it was issued, this museum quality image remains compelling and is one of the finest of the PKZ posters. 20th Century p. 114, The Modern Poster 188, Weill 439, Realismes 19.
