STORY OF POSTER ART

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 569, 23 January 1929, Page 10

STORY OF POSTER ART

SOME FAMOUS PLACARDS TASTE AND CENSORSHIP ADVANCE liST 100 YEARS It is just a hundred years (writes a special correspondent of the "Observer”) since the first advertising poster appeared, and the Duke of York is to attend a luncheon in the Stationers’ Hail, London, given by the British Poster Advertising Association in celebration of the anniversary. If placard and poster are synonymous terms, we must look far beyond the last hundred years for the first advertisement in this form. Greece, and during the Greek and Roman periods Egypt also, knew placards affixed to posts and walls. Usually they demanded the capture of thieves or of runaway slaves sometimes they contained offers of goods or services. A soothsayer’s advertisement, dating from the age of the Ptolemies is still preserved. Occasionally these libelli, as the Roman called them, had reference to articles lost and found. The real development of outdoor advertising had to await the invention of printing, and one of the earliest jobs from William Caxton’s press was a bill, posted on the walls of the Chantry at Westminster, to advertise his service-books. Early Bills Before the Great Fire numerous rails and posts stood in the streets of London for the protection of pedestrians. These were used by tradesmen, and in particular by enterprising theatrical managers, as convenient places for the display of their bills. John Northbrooke, in his pamphlet against theatrical performances (1579), says: “They used to set up their bills upon posts some certain days before, to admonish people to make resort to their theatres.” These early posters were rough woodcuts, and quite a few are still preserved. Nearly all of them are announcements of plays and amusements, and the early nineteenth century, when the circus flourished, may be called the nursery of the poster industry. Some of its pioneers, whose names are still eminent in the trade, actually began life in the direct employment of the great travelling circuses in the character of what afterwards came to be called advance agents. In the mid-Victorian era the notices “Stick no Bills” and “Billstickers will be prosecuted” were a not infrequent sight in the towns, for the present practice by which posters are posted only on recognised “stations” was not evolved without a struggle. By the sixties, however, the recognised poster coriti actors began to buy exclusive rights to space on walls and hoardings, and so were able to protect themselves against pirate competitors. In 1860, too, the first trade associations of the industry were formed. The British Poster Advertising Association, as all know it to-day, is the descendant of these earlier societies*. The first Bill-posters’ Society was reorganised in 1564, when a new code of rules was adopted. The Big Names Meanwhile, noteworthy improvements had been made in posters themselves. The earliest poster-artist of distinction wa* a Frenchman. Lal-

ance, whose debut was made in 1536 | with a poster for a book. After Lai- j ance came Celestin Nanteuil and j Raffet. But the greatest of all these j early French poster artists was Jules ! Cheret. Originally employed in a ! lithographic establishment in England. Cheret returned to France cud soon made a reputation as the foremost poster-artist, of the world. He was the first to use three colours, black and red woodcuts having previously been the only medium employed. The development of lithography in the “eighties” brought great improvements, but even in IS7I art was not a perfect stranger to the hoardings, for that year saw the first appearance of Fred Walker’s design for Wilkie Collins's “Woman in White.” In this famous design the woman, shawl-clad, her finger on her lips, is shown passing into an abnormally black and starry night. Fred Walker, the first British posterartist of distinction, was soon followed by 'Walter Crane, Dudley Hardy, Professor Herkomer, R.A., Aubrey Beardsley, Julius Price, the Beggarstaffs Brothers, and many others, and a list j of famous names -which could be I continued to the day of Hassaill, Fred Taylor, and Septimus Scott. In j France, Steinlen, Toulouse Lautres, and the rfest of the gay company which succeeded Cheret, carried oil the tradition. In 18S8 the purchase of Millais’s "Bubbles” caused considerable discussion, and the attention devoted in the Press to Pears Soap perhaps helped to repay Mr. Barratt the 2,000 guineas he gave for the copyright. Furthermore, it gave prestige to poster artists, -who now include in their ranks R.A.’s, and other distinguished painters. “He Won’t Be Happy Till He Gets It” appeared in ISS9, and achieved great popularity. Censorship One of the momentous events in the history of the United Billposters’ Protection Association was the formation of their Censorship Committee for the regulation of the posters displayed on the hoardings. By its work many of the prejudices which at one time threatened the interests of the trade and its patrons have been removed. An agitation for Lie official control of poster designs followed, and but for prompt action by the two great trade bodies, the United Bill Posters’ Association and the London Billposters’ Protection Association, the law would probably have intervened, to the detriment of the public as well as of the trade. Six members of the Associations were appointed to act as a Committee of Censors, and their decision in regard to any poster was made binding upon the members. This Committee exercised, and its successors still exercise, a very stringent censorship, which has been an unmixed blessing from every point of view. In 1910 the trade asociatlons did a notable piece of public work in supporting the fight against consumption, when, as a memorial to King Edward VII., they gave a free display throughout the Kingdom to 30,000 six-teen-sheet posters. But of all public work in which the poster has been used, nothing can compare in importance with the part it played during the wa r. From humble beginnings, with one small poster which contained Lord Kitchener’s appeal for 100,000 men, over 500 different bills of many sizes were issued, including the famous, “What did you do in the Great War, Daddy” The association, too, has associated itself very strongly with the movement for the preservation of the amenities of the countryside, and it steadily discourages the exhibition- of posters, w r hich, however beautiful the’y may be in themselves, may give of fence from their appearance In inap propriate surroundings.