Oct 15, 2020 - Sale 2547

Sale 2547 - Lot 80

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

TOM PURVIS (1888-1959)

TRAVEL BY IMPERIAL AIRWAYS. 1934.


30 1/2x20 inches, 77 1/2x50 3/4 cm. Hudson & Kearns, Ltd., London.
Condition B: extensive overpainting in margins, image and text.

A calendar for the luxurious, early British airline that served the Empire from 1924 until 1939. This image is one of stylish luxury, with the hustle and bustle of a recently-landed plane (a Handley Page HP-42. In fact, from the call numbers, this plane is actually the Heracles). Elegant passengers disembark, with the help of porters and mechanics, and meet with crew members around the plane's wheels. Purvis had established himself as an artist of the refined British way of life through his series of posters for Austin Reed, and here, again, his elegant Art Deco style lends itself perfectly to the image the airline is trying to convey. Purvis p. 107.