History of Vintage Posters

Vintage Posters, as collectibles, carry a certain cachet, as rescued fragments of a lost past. Original authentic vintage European poster advertising has come to be recognized as a highly collectible form of art, whether for pleasure or for investment purposes. World-renowned museums exhibit vintage posters and many have permanent collections. Magnificent examples of such vintage poster collections can be found at the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern, in New York, and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Artist Jules Cheret was the first to display his work via the medium of poster advertising in the 1880's. He is credited with inventing the new vintage poster art form, and was awarded the Legion of Honor 1899. His style and talent so glamorized the profession of the poster artist that it was considered a very respectable and desirable career. Cheret was also a savvy businessman and he constructed a printing shop next to his home for producing vintage posters. It attracted many artists of the period for the single purpose of producing and promoting advertising art.

Advertising agencies of that era would commission, or accept from free-lance artists, an original painting, referred to as a "maquette." This original piece was was usually delivered in the form of a "gouache" or water color. If the maquette was accepted by the agency, the artwork would be recreated on a soft Bavarian limestone surface. This lithographic printing process involved as many as 17 individual color applications, which had to be applied to each individual paper one color at a time. Each new color application required that the limestone surface be washed repeatedly during the application of that individual color. When a new color was introduced, likewise a new stone was introduced, which was designed to accept the placement of the new color. You will probably notice cross like markings, usually found at the top and bottom of your poster. These are the printer's registration marks, placed there for the purpose of keeping the color applications in their appropriate places when a new stone was introduced. A press was used to adhere the colored ink on the limestone, onto the paper. And of course the paper was far from the quality of that which we use today. Over 65 yrs. of use of this lithographic process have been documented for vintage posters.

When the printing was complete the finished posters were glued or tacked to walls and kiosks across their country of origin. These colorful advertisements created a festival-like atmosphere on the otherwise drab and dreary streets of Europe. The people, the art critics and the connoisseurs alike, were delighted that this new form of advertising and poster art had transformed their cities and towns into open-air art museums.

Poster art collecting became fasionable in Europe at the turn of the last century, and the passion for posters spilled across the Atlantic. Experts estimate that by 1896 there were as many as 6000 serious collectors in North America.

As collectors grew more passionate, posters were burglarized from billboards at an alarming rate, and it became increasingly difficult for advertisers to keep posters on the streets. As a solution to the problem, printers increased production and began selling posters to the public.

Today it is rare to find vintage posters on the market in a fresh state. Most vintage posters have suffered the ravages of time and many were abused by the elements while they were serving their intended purpose as posted advertisements. Some vintage posters are so rare that locating an original is probably impossible. If it were not for the fanatical collectors of the last century, many of whom acquired as many as 500 or more unique vintage posters, most of the art nouveau works would have been lost forever. It is the limited availability of these original works that makes vintage poster art collecting an arguably sound investment.