Important fin-de-siecle journal with original colour lithographs by William Nicholson and James Pryde (“The Beggarstaff Brothers), Jules Cheret, Henri Privat Livemont, and Albert Morrow, among others.
The Poster, the first journal devoted to its subject to be published in England, was at the nexus of several currents: aesthetic, technological and financial. At a time when developments in colour lithography had made posters easier to produce, and a wider range of consumer goods gave rise to new ways of marketing, commercial developments made advertising more desirable – and The Poster fostered a belief that such art deserved more than passing engagement. Here, as across Europe in the late nineteenth century, the advent of the illustrated poster was accompanied by claims for the medium’s potential artistic sophistication and seriousness; as John Hewitt has described, the journal showcased the idea of a poster as ‘an original and creative act of a talented individual’. Readers of The Poster would have been alerted to important visual trends in poster art – in mainland Europe, North America and Canada as well as Great Britain – and correspondents wrote in for advice on how to collect and preserve posters, belying the notion that they were an ephemeral medium. If The Poster was short-lived, it was also influential: both as a means of taste-making, and as a journal of record. Its regular features of “Palette Scrapings”, “The Hoardings” and “Rejected Sketches” are particularly interesting, as well as the “Posterdom Caricatures” drawn by Will True.
The Poster marks a transitional moment when the relationship between art and advertising was still unstable. It was published at a time when the tools and techniques of advertising were becoming increasingly sophisticated but had not yet taken on their modern shape. The notion of brand identity, expressed in some striking and memorable visual symbol, was already a commonplace, but the idea of advertising as a form of group psychology, informed by Freudian theory and appealing to people’s unconscious emotions and desires – was still in the future. The Poster is one of the places where we can see contemporary debates about art and advertising being played out, but with no expectation that ‘the poster as art’ and ‘the poster as advertising’ were necessarily in conflict or that the one would have to give way to the other. Rather, there was a lively discussion about the way that art could be placed at the service of advertising.
The Poster needs and deserves more bibliographical research. It is the first English periodical devoted to the relatively new phenomenon, the illustrated poster. This historical, scholarly journal takes its subject seriously. Therefore, coverage goes back almost to the beginning of the genre rather than reporting only on current work. It includes articles on many masters of the poster, including, for example, Charles R. Cochran, “Beardsley at School“ No. 3 (Aug. ‚– Sept.), pp. 103 ‚– 105, which publishes for the first time “Holywell Street“ an early pen-and-wash drawing from Cochran’s collection, which he assigns to Beardsley’s 16th year. Other featured artists include Will Bradley, Gordon Craig, Mucha, Nicholson, Ethel Reed, Louis Rheade, Charles Robinson, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Also articles on the poster art of various nations. Six volumes were published, ending in 1901. In its final year, the title was changed to The Poster and Art Collector, probably in an effort to reach a larger audience.
Apparently The Poster, like, for example, The Savoy, was sold by the individual issue and, once a volume was completed, the publisher both (1) sold casing and the index to owners, who then had their own binders produce the bound volume; and (2) sold bound volumes complete, with original front wrappers bound in at the end. Two bindings exist for Vol. I: the cover reads either “Volume One“ or “Volume First“. This copy represents the latter variant, with no priority assignable. If the publisher did, in fact, sell the casing/index separately, one would expect to see variations, such as with and without original wrappers, each issue in its own wrapper, etc.
Though the publisher’s address on the Strand remains unchanged, the first of the Nestle’s ads at the end states: “Published by Ransom, Woestyn & Co.“, while the second ad states: “Published by the Sole Proprietor, H. R. Woestyn“. The use of “Sole Proprietor“ almost surely indicates that Ransom was initially the co-publisher before Woestyn alone published the journal. 24.9 x 18 cm.
Collates complete, the text of the volume numbered continuously‚ excluding wrappers‚ rather than beginning anew with each number, with initial and terminal leaves added for issuance as a complete volume: [[i ‚– ii]], title-leaf with printer’s imprint on verso; [[iii]], iv - viii], indices of articles and illustrators; [1], illustrated fly-leaf for “Volume I“; 4 - 289 text; six leaves comprising the front covers of the original issues in full colour, all versos blank; three leaves illustrated ads for Nestle’s Milk, the first and third in colour, all versos blank. In the original publisher’s binding of olive cloth over beveled boards, gilt-stamped on front cover: “The Poster / Volume First / June to / December / 1898“ and on the spine: “The Poster / Vol. I“.
Extremities of spine and corners rubbed, with light wear at two corners. Text block tight in the binding, but with some thumbing and intermittent soiling, small tears to some leaves, with 7cm tear to leaf comprising pp. 237-39. Gatherings slightly proud.
