The Bicycle

Sanders of Oxford RARE PRINTS & MAPS

THE BICYCLE

Original posters and advertisements from the late 1800’s to the 1930’s

On display in the gallery from Wednesday 15th May, 2013 Sanders of Oxford 104 High Street Oxford OX1 4BW 01865 242590 - infor@sandersofoxford.com - www.sandersofoxford.com

With around 21,000 bikes in use in Oxford on a daily basis, the bicycle is a subject close to the heart of many Oxfordians. Sanders of Oxford are pleased to present a collection of striking original posters and advertisements depicting the bicycle from the late 1800’s to the 1930’s.

The Golden Age of Cycling reached its pinnacle in the late 1800’s, during the Belle Epoque era1. This was also a period when poster art was at its height, with artists such as Alphonse Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec producing graphic masterpieces. However few artists concentrated purely on the subject of the bicycle, some of the most notable poster artists of the age such as Jules Chéret and Lautrec produced advertisements for the likes of ‘Cycles Humber’ and ‘La Chaine Simpson’ (No 6), though unknown artists produced many spectacular posters as well.

With a boom in bicycle sales in the 1890’s there was ample funding available to the major bicycle manufacturers to commission more extravagant and impressive posters and advertisements, particularly in America. By 1900 the bicycle boom was over in the United States, but advertising was still dominant, this time due to a more competitive market. American advertisements of the period had a unique style, with catchy marketing slogans. This is in contrast to the elegant and artistic style of French poster designs that promoted a lifestyle as much as a product (No 1). However, British bicycles sales were, in this period, decidedly upmarket, resulting in a more conservative ‘gentlemanly’ approach. What can be seen towards the end of the nineteenth and the start of the twentieth century, is British bicycle advertising directed toward women (No 4). In this era in Great Britain, for the first time, the bicycle allowed women a freedom of movement previously denied.2 The primary printing method of these posters was multi-colour stone lithography, invented by Jules Cheret at the end of the nineteenth century. For each colour printed, a separate lithographic stone/plate had to be drawn, with precise registration of the paper each time the stones were put through the press. These original posters are printed on very thin paper, similar to newsprint. Acting as the billboards of the day they were only expected to survive for a limited period of time, pasted in public places to advertise a product or event. Their artists and printers knew that they would be rained on, torn down and covered up; therefore it is extremely rare to find them in perfect condition. The process of stone lithography limited the number of posters that could be created; a run of approximately 2,000 was standard. However because they were not created as collectable artworks, or intended to last for more than a month or so, they were not numbered and often they were not signed.3

1.The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque, French for “Beautiful Era” was a period in French history that is commonly dated as starting in 1871 and ending at the outbreak of World War I. Occurring during the era of the Third French Republic, it was a period characterized by optimism and peace both at home and in Europe. The peace and prosperity in Paris allowed the arts to flourish, and many masterpieces of literature, music, theatre, and visual art gained recognition. The Belle Époque was named, in retrospect, when it began to be considered a “golden age” in contrast to the horrors of World War I. 2.Old Bike.Eu. Vintage Bicycle Adverts 1900-1920. [Online]. Available: http://oldbike.wordpress.com/vintage-bicycle-adverts-1900-1920/. Accessed 30th April 2013.

3. IVPDA. (2006). Starting Your Collection. [Online]. Available: http://www.ivpda.com/cgi-local/content.cgi?p=5. Accessed 30th April 2013.

1. Cycles Guyot Lithograph Anonymous c.1925 Image 1114 x 748 mm, Sheet 1200 x 805 mm Framed A scarce large-scale Art Deco poster depicting a fashionable lady reclining on her Guyot bicycle, framed by the silhouette of over hanging branches printed in the same midnight blue as the title space, drawing the eye into the image.

The artistic French design conveys an idyllic lifestyle for the rider but also illustrates a key social development of the period, that of independence for women. As the famous women’s emancipationist Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton stated: “Woman is riding to suffrage on a bicycle.”

However the poster also depicts cameos of the company crest and of a male seated on a racing bike illustrating the variety of bicycles manufactured by Guyot from comfy touring bikes to competitive racers.

Guyot were an acclaimed Swiss company who united the most reputable and reliable components for their bicycles in order to build the most comfortable ride in the industry, combining Caminade handlebars, Bowden brakes, Lamplugh saddle and Wobler tires.

Condition: Professionally repaired tears to bottom margin, otherwise excellent.

[30711] £800

2. Crescent. En Vän Für Livet Lithograph Bauer c.1930 Image 644 x 558 mm, Sheet 892 x 590 mm Framed Text below image reads: VELOCIPEDAKTIEBOLAGET LINBLAD. Malmö / Stockholm / Guteborg.

An extremely rare advertising poster for the high quality, Sweedish Crescent bicycle company.

Still in production today, Crescent originated in the United States, where bicycles were sold under this name for the first time around the 1890’s by Western Wheel Works, a Chicago-based company. US-made bicycles, including Crescent, were considered to be of a high technical standard and maintained an excellent reputation in Europe. This was the crucial reason why the Swede, August Lindblad, started importing Crescents to Sweden, where he sold them from his base in Stockholm’s Old Town.

In the mid-1950s, bicycle racing was very popular in Sweden, and because cyclists riding Crescents scored major successes, the brand came to be associated with sport and racing. Crescent received the nickname, the “world champion bike”.1 Condition: three oval shaped stamps, repaired tear to left hand side of sheet.

1. Cycle Europe. (2006). Crescent Story Telling . [Online]. Available: http://www.cycleurope.com/ce_b_crescent.html. Accessed 30th April 2013.

[30713] £450

3. Brennabor Lithograph Anonymous Ges. gesch, Nachdruck verboten. Eigentum der Brebbabor-Werke. Aktiengesellschaft für Kunstdruck. Niedersedlitz b. Dresden. c.1935 Image 980 x 426 mm, Sheet 991 x 442 mm Framed An very rare large-scale advertising poster for the famous Brennabor company. A German manufacturer of bicycles, motorcycles and motor vehicles, based in Brandenburg an der Havel from 1871 to 1945.

Although by an unknown designer the graphic is very much reminiscent of the German Jugendstil style of two decades previous. A fashinable lady wearing a Brebbabor belt buckkle stands in front of a bold red background with a decorative sweeping flora design in contrasting green.

Condition: Laid to board, numerous horizontal creases and repairs, four circular discolouration stains to top of sheet with repair.

[30717] £850

4. Cunard Tandem Woodcut Clarke c. 1887. but 2013 impression.

Image 680 x 995 mm, Sheet 740 x 1055 mm Framed From an edition of 8 Engraved in the block Clarke Eng Leicester A fantastic large-scale woodcut of a pair of ladies seated upon a Cunard Tandem, printed from a block carved on the bottom of a desk.

No record of the original print has been traced.

Cunard bicycles and tricycles were made by Frank Gibbons at St. John’s Works, Wolverhampton. A wide range of machines were produced including tandems. The advantages claimed for the company’s tandems included an even distribution of weight between the wheels in a single or double form. The machines were easily convertible to singles, or a third seat for a child could be added. The width could be easily reduced to 27 inches by removing a fly nut so that the machine could pass through a narrow doorway. The company had sale rooms at 79 Chancery Lane, London and its products were available at the City Cycle Company, 62 Bridge Street, Manchester.1 1.Bev Parker. (2012). Transport, Bicycles [Online]. Available: www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/Transport/bicycles/Bamboo.htm. Accessed 30th April 2013.

[30716] £400

5. Cycles “The Perfect” The best on the Globe Lithograph Anonymous 1895 Image & Sheet 900 x 590 mm Framed An extremely scarce 19th century cycling poster advertising “The Perfect” bicycle.

Although by an unknown artist, this striking artwork utilises bold planes of colour and a pared-down graphic depiction of the bicycle. This results in a superb example of advertising graphics from the end of the 19th century, combining the commercial needs of the product with the style and fashion of the period.

Condition: Creasing to right hand side of print, small professionally repaired tear to bottom of sheet at centre.

[30659] £1,700

6. La Chaine Simpson Lithograph Henri Toulouse-Lautrec 1900 Image 232 x 326 mm, Sheet 288 x 399 mm framed From Les Maitres de l’Affiche PL. 238.

Lithograph in colours of Toulouse-Lautrec’s famous poster, transcribed from Lautrec’s large scale 1896 poster of the same title, printed by Chaix. Artists’ monogram within an elephant (the origins of which have been traced back to a wooden elephant in the garden of the Moulin Rouge). Blind stamped in bottom-right corner of sheet with the image of a poster held aloft by a seated elegantly dressed lady, the emblem of Les Maitres de l’Affiche.

One of the most famous cycling posters ever produced, a striking graphic image of Constant Huret riding with a Simpson chain behind the Gladiator tandem pacer at the Velodrome de la Seine.

Lautrec created the original oversized poster, La chaîne Simpson, for the English cycling company, Simpsons.

Lautrec was a serious fan of cycling and was introduced to the French representative for the Simpson company, Louis Bouglé, who commissioned the poster, by the playwright and cycling fanatic, Tristan Bernard.

Bouglé brought Lautrec to England to meet his cycling team, and on his return to Paris, the artist wrote to his mother: “I was with a team of bicyclists who’ve gone to defend the flag the other side of the Channel. I spent 3 days outdoors and have come back here to make a poster advertising ‘Simpson’s Lever Chain’, which may be destined

to be a sensational success.”1 The main focus of the image is on the French cyclist Constant Huret and the oversized Simpson Chain, bearing down on the back wheel of a Gladiator tandem pacer. Lautrec has cropped the image of the front tandem rider to create an impression of motion. This sense of movement is heightened by the blurred wheels and crowded composition of the peloton in the background. Standing next to the brass band in the centre of the velodrome Lautrec has depicted Bouglé and the company owner, William Spears Simpson. The address of their Paris shop in the overlaid text refers to Bouglé by his nickname ‘Spoke’.

1. Lautrec to his mother, early June 1896, in Lucien Goldschmidt and Herbert Schimmel (eds), Unpublished correspondence of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, London: Phaidon, 1969. letter no. 204, p. 187.

[30658] £2,100

7. Salon du Cycle Lithograph Jean Louis Forain 1897 Image 190 x 378 mm mounted Full title reads Deuxième Salon du Cycle. Xbre 94.

From Les Maitres de l’Affiche PL. 51 Lithograph by J L Forain, signed by the artist in the stone. Blind stamped in bottom-right corner of sheet with the image of a poster held aloft by a seated elegantly dressed lady, the emblem of Les Maitres de l’Affiche .

A reduced version of the original large-scale poster design for the Second Bicycle Show in 1894, held at the Palais de L’Industrie.

[29573] £210

8. Victor Bicycles Lithograph Willaim H Bradley 1896 Image 230 x 333 mm, Sheet 290 x 393 mm Framed From Les Maitres de l’Affiche PL. 152.

Lithograph by William H. Bradley, signed by the artist in the stone. Blind stamped in bottom-right corner of sheet with the image of a poster held aloft by a seated elegantly dressed lady, the emblem of Les Maitres de l’Affiche.

Bradley’s advertisement for the Overman Wheel Company’s, Victor Bicycles, is one of his best-known and acclaimed designs. The bicycle itself was one of the first designs to steer resolutely away from the velocipede, which had a higher front wheel, to the identical-wheel construction that soon became standard. Like every good poster artist, Bradley didn’t try to sell the technology, but the allure of bike riding. Of this poster, Rogers states that it is a “notable achievement” and it “demonstrates that this artist can, at will, accommodate his method to the subject, no matter what it is . . . In a scheme of violet and white, [it] has much carrying force, and is an example of how effectiveness may be secured by simplicity and a proper balance of the colour masses”.1 “Bradley was certainly America’s best known and most prolific poster artist, its very own ‘Cheret’, not in style so much as in popularity and output. And for style he was much influenced by the entire Art Nouveau school of design…(in his) poster for Victor Bicycles, spokes might have marred the composition of the poster and their absence gives a feeling of lightness and airiness to the bicycle, and the entire design. The gentleman to the left, we may assume, is also on a bicycle, but it’s not clear if he’s eying her or her Victor”.2 1.Rennert, Jack (1973). Bicycle, 100 years of Bicycle Posters, by. Harper & Row. New York. (24,57) 2. Rennert, Jack. Poster Auctions International Inc. Auction Catalogues.. New York, 1989 to present. (PAI_XL, 16)

[30657] £530

9. Favor Cycles & Motos. Clermont-Ferrand, France Lithograph Jean Pruniere c. 1930 Image 480 x 480 mm, Sheet 500 x 500 mm Framed A bold French bicycle and motorcycle advertising poster featuring the two machines racing against each other within the circular text of the company name.

The unusual square format of the artwork and ingenious printing, utilising only three colours and the white of the paper, illustrates the shift occuring in the 1930’s away from the artistic poster designs of the Belle Époque to a bolder, brasher American style of advertising graphic.

Jean Michel Alfred Pruniere (1901 - 1944) was a French illustrator, graphic designer and poster artist famed for his 1930’s designs advertising bicycles, motorbikes and automobiles. Including two designs for Favor and one for the Automobile- Club d’Auvergne, Course De Cote de la Baraque.

[30712] £250

10. Cycles “Griffon” Lithograph Walter Thor c.1910 Image 558 x 378 mm, Sheet 587 x 395 mm framed Signed by the artist in the stone.

A classic Art Nouveau cycling poster by Walter Thor, featuring a gentleman in period dress standing with his Griffon touring bicycle upon a jetty. The crisp outlining of the bicycle makes it leap forward from the hazy depiction of the shoreline in the distance, with the shadow of the jetty at the bottom of the print morphing into the frame of the image.

Walter Thor (1870-1929) was born in Munich and went on to study in Paris. Thor was a prolific turn-of-thecentury artist designing posters for car and bicycle companies such as Peugeot, Darracq , Griffon and NaphtaCycle.

Condition: Small professionally repaired tear to centre of right hand side of image. Backed with archival linen.

[30715] £1,420