?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
RENE BLAIR (DATES UNKNOWN) LONDON'S TRAMWAYS / HYDE PARK. 1930. 29 3/4x19 3/4 inches, 75 1/2x50 cm. Condition B+ / B: pinholes and staining in corners; creases in wide side margins; minor creases in image; pencil number in lower left corner. London Tramway posters could quite easily be confused with the posters published by the London Underground. And yet even though they were published in the same city, during the same era and all for public transportation, there are some significant differences. The London County Council (LCC), who ran the tramways, needed to compete with the "Underground Group [which] dominated London's transport scene, controlling most of London's buses, Underground railways and also three tramway companies" (Tramway p. 6). While Frank Pick, head of the Underground Publicity Department, had the resources to employ successful artist from around Britain and Europe, the LCC chose to commission works from artists studying at the Council's own Central School of Arts and Crafts. Much like Underground posters, the Tramway posters "also offer us a glimpse into how the Londoners of the 1920s spent their leisure time . . . [but] in the auction world the LCC tramway images are relatively unknown . . . they very rarely appear on the market" (Tramway, foreward). "Blair's posters often convey a rather traditional, old-fashioned look. Although this view of boating on the Serpentine is amongst his best works for the LCCT" (Tramway p. 21), this image also exists in a version twice the size. Tramway p. 21.
