?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
WALTER LACY JARDINE (1884-1970) TRAVEL / AIR • LAND • SEA / BOOK THROUGH BURNS, PHILP & CO LTD. Circa 1930. 39 1/4x24 1/2 inches, 99 3/4x62 1/4 cm. H & G Pty Ltd. Condition B+: repaired tears at edges, some affecting text; restored losses, creases and minor overpainting at edges. Burns, Philp & Co. was a trading company founded in 1883, which used their own ships to keep their stores supplied. As they purchased plantations to keep their stores stocked, they needed more ships, which they began to use to deliver mail and ultimately carry passengers. The company grew until it was so large that it became a household name in Australia and a pillar on the country's stock exchange. Through 1925, the company published a semi-regular annual called Picturesque Travel, which later became BP Magazine, used to promote their tourist destinations and offerings. In June, 1929, BP Magazine ran an editorial entitled "The Travel Age," which stated, "Australia is the starting point for innumerable tours among the islands of the Pacific and trips through Eastern lands. From her harbors sail the comfortable ships that make traveling an actual pleasure." That editorial was accompanied by a photomontage made by the explorer Frank Hurley, entitled "By Sea, Land and Air," which illustrates a biplane, a steam train and a cruise liner superimposed into a single image (see Prosthetic Gods: Travel, Representation and Colonial Governance, by Robert Dixon, University of Queensland Press, 2001, p. 91). It seems more than likely that this image was the inspiration for this poster. Jardine was a talented illustrator from an early age; at just 17 years old, he began drawing for the Australian Star newspaper. He moved to New York City in the early 1920s and provided illustrations for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and other magazines. He returned to Australia in 1928 and opened up his own studio, from where he did advertising campaigns for many Australian companies. "Unusually for the period, his artistic reputation rested solely upon his commercial designs" (Monash p. 27).
