Saturday, January 2, 2010

When 'boats flew with elegance & style

All I wanted for Christmas was a new two-hundred mile an hour two-deck Imperial Flying Boat!


Two posters from the Smithsonian: 'Fly Now: The National Air and Space Museum Poster Collection'. This one is an interesting variation on the period's aviation posters with a forced perspective to imitate the unbelievably high bow of the luxury transatlantic liners of the day, most famous with the Normandie poster.

The Smithsonian's blog about this collection is here, and the posters are here.


The right crowd and no crowding. Glad to see the little girl has to stand on tiptoe to see the elephants stampeding below. As you'd expect, while the physical shapes of some of the passengers are biologically impossible, the decor is absolutely accurate.

James
___________________________________________
Top:
Sponsor: Imperial Airways
Artist: Severin
Inventory Number: A19901003000
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Unframed: 100.97 x 63.5cm (3ft 3 3/4in. x 2ft 1in.)
Materials: Offset Lithograph
Physical Description: IMPERIAL AIRWAYS Multicolor commercial aviation print. Seaplane (Short S.23 Empire Flying Boat, G-ADHL) in harbor with what appears to be tugboats on either side of it. Rear view of seaplane. Multicolor, but mostly blue and white image on paper. Partial text: "Imperial Airways Europe Africa India Far East Australia"


Lower:
Sponsor: Imperial Airways
Manufacturer: Haycock Press
Artist: Chandler
Date: 1936
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Unframed: 49.53 x 31.75cm (1ft 7 1/2in. x 1ft 1/2in.)
Materials: Offset Photolithograph/Letterpress
Physical Description: Interior scene of Short Empire flying-boat (Short S.23); well-dressed passengers read, drink wine, look out window at a coastal scene, text block at bottom; multicolor image on paper. Full text: Luxury in the new Emprie Flying Boats Imperial Airways Europe, Africa, India, China, Australia


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

James - those are just gorgeous. I also got lost for a long time at the links provided. We have a number of transportation art posters in our home. Most of them related to the London Underground, but a few related to BOAC as well.

(I'll have to share the picture at my own blog since the comment feature will not allow the html for a photo!)

I hope you get your flying boat soon :)

Taccola said...

Thanks Salah!
I actually have a limited-edition 1/72 resin Short C Class kit. Even for an experienced modeller it looks daunting to build. Be careful what you wish for!

The London Transport posters are (that over used word) iconic, and I've always had a few in the house; I also like 'The Great Bear' variation on the tube map.

Thanks for sharing your BOAC posters, too!

James