Nov 19, 2015 - Sale 2399

Sale 2399 - Lot 194

Price Realized: $ 3,380
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
SAM HYDE HARRIS (1889-1977) SOUTHERN PACIFIC'S NEW DAYLIGHT. 1937.
23x16 inches, 58 1/2x40 1/2 cm.
Condition B+ B: repaired tears at edges, some into image; restoration along multiple sharp horizontal creases through image; repaired pin holes in corners; ink stamp in bottom margin.
Harris was born in England and moved to Los Angeles when he was 15. He began his career as a commercial artist, painting notices on sides of buildings, creating signs and billboards, designing posters, typography and more. In 1920, he was hired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company to design posters. He also worked for the Southern Pacific. "The major portion of the advertising appeared in brochures, magazines and newspapers, but local advertisements were in the form of billboards and hand-painted posters that appeared in department stores, banks, displays in windows and bulletin boards in ticket offices and lobbies" (Harris p. 18). In the 1930s, "streamlined trains were among the most striking, visible and accessible examples of Modernism" in America (Zega p. 104). "The streamliner was perfectly suited to the poster medium; its smooth airflow profile offered the prospect of a respite from America's stylistic preoccupation with realism" (ibid). An excellent example of American modernist design. Zega 141, Harris p. 103, Affiche Art Deco p. 86, Affiches Chemins de Fer p. 69.