Rare posters tell story of Scottish travel and golf

Images to raise up to £170,000

Rare travel posters all promoting Perthshire, including two of the earliest posters advertising golf at Gleneagles, could fetch up to £12,000 at an auction in America next week.

One Gleneagles poster – featuring a picture of the 15th hole, the Howe O’Hope on the newly-opened, in 1919, King’s Course – is expected to sell for between £3,500 and £5,500.

The other Gleneagles poster featuring the ninth hole, the Heich o’ Fash (the Height of Trouble) on the King’s Course, is tipped to fetch £2,850-£4,285.

Both posters are three feet by three feet and neither is dated but the tell-tale CR initials – for the Caledonian Railway – in the bottom right corner of each poster confirms they were produced before January 1 1923, when the Caledonian Railway became part of the newly-formed London, Midland and Scottish Railway(LMS).

It means they were possibly the first posters promoting golf at Gleneagles.

Auctioneers Swann say: “The Gleneagles hotel and golf resort was the brainchild of Donald A Matheson, the general manager of the Caledonian Railway after he spent a holiday in the area in 1910.

“Construction on the Gleneagles Hotel began before the First World War but wasn’t completed until 1924.

“The golf courses were opened in 1919, before the construction of the hotel was finished.

“There were two courses designed by Scottish golf champion, James Braid – the King’s and the Queen’s.”

A three feet by five feet poster, emblazoned with the words “Loch Tay, the Loch of Loveliness”, also produced by the Caledonian Railway in or around 1920,is expected to sell for between £850 and £1,285 at Thursday’s auction.

A circa-1925 poster, Perth, the Fair City, is set to fetch between £570–£850.

The Perth poster was designed by artist William Miller Frazer who was born, raised and educated in Perthshire.

Mr Frazer made history when he exhibited his work at the Royal Scottish Academy every year for 73 years.

The four Perthshire posters in the auction on Thursday were owned, until her death in July at the age of 62, by leading New York poster dealer and collector Gail Chisholm.

They are among 135 rare vintage posters from Ms Chisholm’s collection, which are expected to sell for between £120,000 and £170,000.

This circa-1925 poster is set to fetch between £570–£850 in America.

This poster from around 1920 is expected to fetch between £850-£1,285 at auction.