The November 26, 2022 Auction including:
The £100k Second Half of the Connoisseurs Collection 

The first part of the auction included a remarkable collection of original artworks by the now almost forgotten Fireman artist and commercial designer Leslie Carr particularly embraced maritime, railway and motoring subjects and provided images for posters for (amongst others) LNER, Southern Railway, British Railways and Morris Motors Ltd. However, despite being represented in several important collections and having produced numerous iconic images during the 1920s, 30s and 40s in his distinctive modernist, Art Deco style, Carr continued working into the 1950s, producing posters for the European Grand Prix, held at Silverstone in 1950 and went on to become Art Director of The Motor magazine in the 1960's little attention has been paid to his work until recently. Research has only lately confirmed his dates. He died at Hove on 6th February 1969.

Notable amongst the works which had certainly come from the remaining contents of his studio was his sketch book there were several delightful small gouaches of wartime interest, landmarks of Dorset and ship and motor racing. There was also a quantity of ephemera, a pictorial record of much of his commercial work, the most surprising item was a jewel of a design for the Tank Regiment's 1917 Christmas Card this sold for £240.  There was also a collection of catalogues for the Fireman Artists Exhibitions held during the war.

Amongst the airline posters was this stunning design by Edmond Maurus born 1903 for the Air Union Golden Ray route between Paris and London c.1925, one of the first between the two cities, the strong yellow sky gives the perfect background for the red soaring airliner. The poster sold for £1175 against and estimate £100-1500.

Collectors got very excited about this Qantas poster for New Zealand by the Australian Harry Rogers (1929-2012) we were advised that t was a not seen before design, others in the series for BOAC also by Rogers are more common, its rarity drove up the bidding to £1050 having been cautiously estimated at £200-250.

We offered a small group of Soviet Second World War posters, the best price achieved was for the one showing above titled "Fascism is the most evil enemy of women" dated 1941, another "We Demand Peace" original poster showing world leaders including Stalin and Churchill around the table and printed in 1950 sold for £390.

We continue to disperse a collection of GPO posters consigned by the Postal Heritage Trust, the posters are repeats from the collection held at Mount Pleasant in the City of London, the Loading Mails at the Docks is one of four designs by H S Williamson who was recruited to design posters by the Post Office following the closure of the Empire Marketing Board who eponymous posters by the best designers of the day are now much sought after, this time the large quad format poster sold for £1025 a good price considering the estimate of £600-800.

The Connoisseurs collection had a strong showing of 1930's Automobile posters, many for European races and marques, we also had a fine selection from Shell the two shown did well and selling below estimate was Paul Nash's Kimmeridge Folly Dorset at £1500. Out of the European selection notable was Roger Perot's wonderful Delahaye making £4500 on £4000-6000 estimate, Thor's early Pneus Dunlop sold to a US museum for £2900 estimate £200-3000, Automobile Club of Parma Grand Prix 1930 went to an Italian collector for £2250 estimate £1000-1500 and £1900 for the rare Geo Ham Lille Automobile Show 1926.

Travel and Skiing was well represented in the auction, with a collection of winter sports posters being consigned by an English owner from his Chalet in Chamonix, eight out of ten found buyers with the top billing going to Ponty's Chamonix Mont-Blanc at £2000 estimate £2000-2500, Farcy's Grenoble 1909 £2200 estimate £2000-2500 and Helmuth Kurtz's  Davos Finiculare Railway was bid to £1500 against an estimate of £1000-1500. The Odessa poster printed for display in France in 1930 sold to a Russian for just over lower estimate at £810. The beach poster for Annecy was hotly contested to £3800 by a UK collector.

In the British Railways section the two stand outs were Dinkel's wonderful London Transport poster advertising the West-End. The poster dates from 1931 and made £625 estimate £800-1200. Rojan's Riveria and Betty Swanick's LT posters made £500 a piece, these were a good buy and came from a lovely collection consigned from a vendor in Salisbury, having been collected by her aunt in the 1930's.  John Hassall's Skegness Jolly Fisherman is always sought after and we have sold it on a few occasions, this time it made £2500 the highest price so far. Lastly another rarely seen poster by Sir William Orpen LMS The Night Mail found a buyer at £3800.