?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
PAUL C. ERKELENS (1912-?) KLM / ROYAL DUTCH AIR LINES / AMSTERDAM - BATAVIA TWICE WEEKLY. 1937. 39x26 1/2 inches, 99x67 1/4 cm. Luii & Co., Amsterdam. Condition A-: minor repaired tears, restoration and time-staining at edges. In 1927, KLM began a weekly service to Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies. The journey, undertaken in various Fokker aircraft, was nearly 9000 miles and took five and a half days. By 1935 the airline had switched over to Douglas DC-2s and the route was flown twice a week. In 1937, the Douglas DC-3 supplanted the earlier model and the service was increased to three times a week. This poster, which also appears with text promoting three times per week service, must have been released just before the airlines started flying more frequently. The cutaway image of a DC-3 shows how roomy and comfortable the interior of the plane was, as the normal 22 seat configuration had been reduced to just 12 seats in order to provide maximum comfort on the nearly week-long journey. Erkelen worked extensively for KLM, designing more than a dozen different posters for the airline, as well as images promoting travel to Holland in general. This is the English version.
