Uncle Sam wants you: huge collection of first world war posters up for auction
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Version 0 of 1. A collection of about 2,000 posters from the time of the first world war, considered to be one of the world’s finest and amassed over more than a decade by a US army officer, will be sold at auction later this month, Guernsey’s auction house said on Tuesday. The collection, which will go under the hammer on June 30 and July 1 during an online, unreserved auction with no minimum bids, includes the famous poster of a stern-looking, top-hatted Uncle Sam pointing a finger, above the words, “I Want You for U.S. Army”. Another patriotic poster shows the US flag and labourers with the words “Teamwork Wins”, while a third is of French women working in a laundry, inscribed “Four Years in the Fight”. “It’s the best (collection) in the world,” said Arlan Ettinger, the president of Guernsey’s. “It appears that from the very beginning it was always looked at as the most comprehensive assemblage of posters of many different nationalities pertaining to their involvement in World War One.” Although all of the posters, works of art which are expected to fetch between $200 and $5,000 apiece, are patriotic, their topics range from fundraising and food rationing to women’s war efforts, enlistment and animal aid. Edward McCrahon, who was born in Brooklyn, started the collection after he joined the French army two years before the US entered the Great War in 1917. He became enthralled with the colourful, graphic posters encouraging citizens to support the war and continued collecting after enlisting with the US armed forces. About half of the posters are from the US, while others are in various languages from more than 15 countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Cuba and China. Many are by prominent illustrators, including JC Leyendecker and Howard Chandler Christy, and are among the only known copies to exist. The largest poster is a massive 9- by 14-foot US work urging people to “Give or Perish”, that was made on behalf of the Armenian Relief Fund. “There are many posters in this collection that have never been seen before,” Ettinger said. When the first world war ended, McCrahon devoted all his time to enlarging the collection and by the 1930s, he began to exhibit it around the country. The collection is being sold by his heirs. “It really is a time capsule of a different era, when these things were very stirring, patriotic and treasured,” Ettinger said. |