An iconic vintage railway poster featuring the Forth Bridge has sold at auction for £12,600.
The striking Art Deco-style poster was designed in 1928 by Henry George Gawthorn (1879-1941), who worked as a commercial artist for LNER and also as a fine artist.
The poster, which had expected to fetch between £6,000 and £8,000, was the centrepiece of a sale of Scottish scenes, as previewed by The Courier.
The sale, carried out live by fine art and design auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull on Thursday October 27, in partnership with poster specialists Tomkinson Churcher, also saw a railway poster featuring the Fife coast sell for £1,638.
The 40 x 25 inch lithographic poster was created around 1950 by Frank Henry Mason (1875 – 1965).
What about other posters?
Other items in the sale included a 1955 poster of Royal Deeside by Kenneth Steel (1906 to 1970) which sold for £1512.
A 1949 poster of the Scots Guards marching along Princes Street in Edinburgh by Lance Cattermole (1898 to 1992) sold for £1,260.
Meanwhile, a 1934 poster of Edinburgh by Henry Rushbury (1889 to 1968) sold for £3,024.
In all, 51 travel and vintage posters were up for sale, commissioned from a range of artists between 1934 and 1950.
The rare lithographic posters from the heyday of travelling by train were produced to encourage people to take a train to tourist hotspots such as the Fife coast, Bute, Royal Deeside and the Trossachs.
‘Enormous interest’ in sale
Nicolette Tomkinson, from Tomkinson Churcher, specialist consultants to Lyon & Turnbull, said: “Thursday’s Vintage Travel Poster auction was 90% sold with enormous interest in all travel posters.
“The Scottish travel posters were particularly well received, and we were delighted with the top lot, Gawthorn’s stunning Art Deco image “Over the Forth to the North” which realised £12,600.
“There was also competitive bidding for signed Andy Warhol posters which had excellent provenance, with The Tate Gallery 1971, featuring Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Munro image selling for £6,048.”
Prestigious auctioneers
Operating since 1826, Lyon & Turnbull is one of the UK’s premier fine art and antiques auctioneers.
The company’s galleries in London and Glasgow complement the historic Georgian headquarters and main saleroom in Edinburgh.
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