RARE posters, including two promoting movies starring Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, are to go under the hammer at Ewbank’s.
The auction of vintage posters will take place this Friday, 3 February, at the company’s Burnt Common Auction Rooms in Send.
Alastair McCrea heads up the vintage poster department at Ewbank’s. He has seen a huge uptick in demand for film posters over recent years.
As the auction house’s flagship poster sale, next month’s event will include around 150 lots.
Viewing will get under way today, continuing until the day of the auction.
One of the highlight lots is a linen-backed 1961 US one-sheet film poster, right, advertising Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which starred Hepburn.
Featuring artwork by Robert McGinnis, the poster has been valued at £5,500 to £6,500.
Also up for auction is a poster, left, advertising the 1960 film Let’s Make Love, which starred Monroe and Yves Montand.
The British quad poster, with artwork by Tom Chantrell, is sure to generate a lot of interest. It has been given a guide price of £800 to £1,200.
A linen-backed poster, lower left, promoting the 1959 Hammer film The Hound of the Baskervilles, carries an estimate of between £1,500 and £2,500.
The film was based on the novel, featuring detective Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Another valuable lot sure to garner much attention is a British quad poster advertising The Rolling Stones’ 1970 film Gimme Shelter, a documentary detailing the latter weeks of the band’s tour of the US the previous year.
The linen-backed poster has been valued at between £800 and £1,200.
A linen-backed US one-sheet poster promoting the 1959 independent classic science fiction/horror movie The Wasp Woman is expected to sell for £800 to £1,200.
Two more lots set to generate much interest are a poster, with artwork by Ralph Steadman, for the 1987 film Withnail and I, and a 1966 British quad, bottom left, signed by actress Martine Beswick, advertising movie One Million Years BC.
Each of the posters has a guide price of between £500 and £800.
An unusual lot is a Planet of the Apes Mondo limited-edition poster by Laurent Durieux.
Numbered, signed and from 2018, the poster has a pre-sale guide price of £100 to £150.
The Mondo and Associated Alternative Movie Poster (AMP) movement began in the early 2000s.
It represents a rejection of the modern photo-based design method of producing cinema posters.
Its posters are created as art pieces – and, generally, they have not been made for film marketing purposes.
Instead the posters are artistic interpretations of both classic vintage films and modern movies.
They are exceptionally high-quality prints, released in strictly limited numbers.
Live internet bidding on lots being auctioned by Ewbank’s is available through www.ewbankauctions.co.uk.