Vintage Posters - Authentic - The place to find vintage art

Throughout their history, posters have been a significant means of mass communication, often with striking visual effect. Collectively, Vintage Posters offer a wealth of art, history, design, and popular culture for us to understand. These images are a familiar part of our world, and we intuitively understand its role as promotion, announcement, advertisement or propaganda.

The posters from our collection represent printing technologies that include original lithography, photolithography, heliography, offset and screen-printing.
Gallery 123 (un deux trois) collection is significant both for its aesthetic value and because it is a unique representation of the cultural and commercial history.

Condition report

We use the international condition code graded: A / B / C / D, with + / - for slightly better / worse condition.

A+   Almost in perfect condition: shining colors, fresh paper, some tiny tears in the edges accepted.
A     In excellent condition or very good condition: Fresh colors, no paper loss, one minor defect is accepted.
A-   May have some minor defects visible such a small tear, pin holes, slight foxing, dirt or bubbles but still in very good condition. A poster with fold marks will be described as A- . May be slightly restored.
B    Fairly good condition with some damages such as obvious fold marks, stains, small restored missing pieces, light-stained or faded colors etc.  Otherwise generally in good condition with a good general look. Generally restored.
C    Large missing pieces, or other damage, even in the central subject. Restored.
D    Bad condition: large missing piece in the central subject. We do not sell D condition posters.

Please do not hesitate to ask us more details about the condition and the mounting of a poster you are interested in.

Shipping

2 hard tubes (a circle hard cardboard tube packed in another triangle one (provided by FedEx).
Estimate delivery: 3-5 days worldwide.
Insurance included.

Printing technique              

In our poster's condition report , we use the following terms:

    * stone lithograph
    * offset
    * heliography
    * serigraphy
    * other techniques

stone lithograph: Most of the posters from the 1870's through to the 1950's were printed by the stone lithograph technique. This hand printed technique is highly valued in the original poster market for its fine artistic quality. Lithographers were true artists and in general stayed anonymous. They spent days drawing on lithographic stones and printing one edition on their huge lithograph press, by the following process: Each color was hand drawn on a fine porous stone using lithographic crayons. The drawing was fixed to the stone with acid. Fresh pigmented ink was applied. The sheet of paper was pressed on the stone, and in this way one color was printed on the sheet. After drying, the process was repeated for every different colors (See example illustrated below the page).

offset photographic process: The 3 mains colors and the black are separated on acetate films. Each color is applied by a photographic process on a metallic plate and engraved. From 1935 the offset slowly took the place of stone lithography. At the end of the 1950s most of the printers had quit the stone lithograph technique. If the original poster was printed in offset, it could be highly valued because it is the original edition.

heliography: An old photographic method of printing generally in gray and white. A few flat colors could be added in some parts of the image. Most of the photographic or photo-montage posters until 1940 were printed by heliography. This technique gives them a special charm and posters designed by some masters like the Swiss Herbert Matter or Walter Herdeg are highly valued.

serigraphy: or screen printing. Each color is transferred on a stretched silk-screen by hand or a photographic process, then printed. This technique was used from the 1950s until now to print small editions, sometimes with a surprisingly high quality of ink. Even if this method could be very mechanical, an artistic touch is present. Many beautiful modern original posters are printed using serigraphy.

other techniques: With our 30 years of experience in the poster business we are doing our best to determine the technique of printing. And we will describe it as best we can. Nevertheless sometimes the exact method is not clear, it could be a mix of techniques or an experiment in a small printing workshop etc. In these cases we will describe it as : "other techniques".

Poster’s mounting

Backing preserves the poster from creases and folds, and gives the poster’s thin paper a structure that allows strong support for the best conditions for framing. Our mounting includes acid-free materials that neutralizes the acidity of the poster and refreshes its colors. We only use reversible techniques.

backing on linen: The poster is mounted on a sheet of acid-free white paper and cotton linen. A white backing-border of 3cm (1 inch) remains all around the poster to protect it.
backing on soft linen: Mounted on cotton-linen and Japan paper.
backing on Japan paper: The poster is mounted on a thin sheet of Japan paper. The Japan paper is already trimmed at the border of the poster and has to be framed “as is”.

Poster’s restoration

Our restoration studio is able to restore most damage on authentic posters. Robert Garvin, the art restorer, has continuously improved restoration techniques and has reached the highest working standards. He mounts and restores original posters also for museums and major private collectors.

Illustration :  A stone lithograph printer in 1898

The successive steps of the stone lithography printing technique: The "Chauffage Deville"  poster by Jean Carlu, printed in 7 stone lithographic colors, using 7 different stones: