Oh, I do like to be beside a seaside poster worth £5,000
A yearning for a more romantic holiday era has pushed up values
NOSTALGIA for an era when holidaymakers promenaded along British seafronts rather than jetting abroad is creating a boom in demand for old seaside posters.
Once fashionable hotspots such as Southport, Blackpool, Scarborough and Bognor Regis may have long lost their status as luxury destinations, but Patrick Bogue, a poster collector and auctioneer at auction house Onslows, based near Blandford Forum, Dorset, says that even though most people prefer to holiday overseas, this does not stop many reminiscing about this bygone age.
Patrick, 55, says: ‘A yearning for a more romantic holiday era dominated by wholesome family values has created a wave of nostalgia for old posters of the British seaside. It has also pushed up values of collectable posters by 20 per cent over the past decade.’
Among his favourites is a 1937 poster of Southport at night depicting wealthy couples in evening wear – complete with top hats and furs – at the Merseyside resort. The Italian artist Fortunino Matania drew the poster – now worth £5,000 – along with others for the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. The aim was to get more people to travel by train.
Other sought-after vintage seaside posters include the 1933 Scarborough poster of a female bather painted by Andrew Johnson for London & North Eastern Railway worth £1,500.
The most famous is the 1908 ‘Skegness is so bracing’ by John Hassall, also for London & North Eastern Railway. An early Skegness poster can sell for £5,000.
Among other collectable travel poster artists of the time are Tom Purvis, Ronald Lampitt, Frank Sherwin, Alan Durman, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Frank New- bould and Norman Wilkinson. ‘The colours of many posters is still vibrant,’ says Patrick. ‘They often depict unspoilt holiday spots with families, bathing beauties and evocative Art Deco designs.’
Modern copying techniques are so good that Patrick warns against buying unseen off the internet through online auction websites such as eBay. He says a telltale sign is that genuine posters are not metric in size but imperial – 40 x 50 inches or 25 x 40 inches.
The traditional postcard is also a great way to invest in an era when the idea of a risque swimsuit was a twopiece jersey shirt with flannel trousers – even if the humour was often saucier than it is today.
King of the seaside card was Donald McGill, who began his career when he sent a cartoon to a nephew in hospital in 1904. It was of a man up to his neck in a frozen pond and the caption read: ‘Hope you get out!’ It was forwarded to a publisher who commissioned his work.
McGill sold more than 200 million cards over five decades. Collector and trader Keith Davies, 73, from Hove, Sussex, says: ‘Given so many of his postcards were produced, they can still be picked up for just a few pounds and even the earliest ones may only fetch a tenner – but they are highly sought after.’
A McGill original watercolour might still fetch as much as £2,000. The record for his cheeky art is £3,850 paid in 1994 for a ‘Hey Sonia!’ postcard painting of an ice skater being hailed by her mother because she seems to have forgotten her underwear.
In 1954 McGill faced an obscenity charge to which he pleaded guilty and was fined £50. He died almost penniless in 1962.
Keith says: ‘Topographical seaside postcards showing life in the early 20th Century tend to be more valuable as they provide images of a long-lost past. Rare examples sold in batches of no more than 500 can fetch £50.’
Postcards have been around in Britain since they were first licensed by the Post Office in 1894. Keith says: ‘There were up to six deliveries a day and you could write a card in the morning and have it delivered in the afternoon. Sadly, the art of sending handwritten cards is dying out.’