May 03, 2018 - Sale 2476

Sale 2476 - Lot 74

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
CLIFFORD ELLIS (1907-1985) & ROSEMARY ELLIS (1910-1998) OCEAN CABLE. 1935.
19 3/4x25 inches, 50 1/4x63 1/2 cm.
Condition A: minor foxing and minor creases at edges. Paper.
Clifford and Rosemary Ellis married in 1931 and worked together for the rest of their careers. It is hard to describe their unique style, which has the colorful and fanciful qualities of children's illustration, yet is also compelling, eye-catching and charmingly composed. Their aesthetic certainly appealed to a large swath of the general public, as the duo was commissioned to design posters for the London Underground, Shell, the General Post Office (GPO) and the Empire Marketing Board. This poster was commissioned by the GPO Film Unit to advertise "Cable Ship," a 12 minute documentary on the repair of an International Telephone Exchange submarine cable that had been damaged. The 1933 film was grouped with 4 other short films, all centering on Post Office activities and repair work, and released in 1935 to considerable cinematic success. After the war, the artists primarily focused on book cover design.