Bronze Mask of Tragedy from the London Opera House, 1911 This magnificent cast bronze Mask of Tragedy once graced the exterior of the London Opera House (later known as the Stoll Theatre) and was saved from demolition in the 1950s. It was made in 1911 and was originally paired with...

Twentieth Century Posters, 40 Cross Street, Islington, 17th – 25th May 2024 Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of British music history – and maybe take a piece of it home for yourself -  at Twentieth Century Posters’ exhibition "British Beats: Rare Original Music Posters & Photographs" We’ll be...

For our latest post, guest blogger, poster enthusiast and friend of Twentieth Century Posters, Rodney Ashton, explains how he restored a classic 1930s railway poster from an unprepossessing assortment of fragments into a stunning example of the poster designer's art.  The poster in question, Shipbuilding on the Clyde by Norman Wilkinson, was...

During the drab post war years of austerity and gloom, one inspirational project sought to brighten the walls of British classrooms with vibrant scenes of everyday life created by some of the country’s foremost artists including L.S Lowry, Paul Nash, Julian Trevelyan and Barbra Jones. Although short-lived, the scheme resulted in 24 original prints, released in 1946 and 1947, that are still remembered today by school children from the 40s and 50s.

Art Exhibition Posters.  A Buyers Guide Regular readers of my blog will know by now how much I love vintage posters, especially British travel and propaganda designs. But there’s one type of poster that I’ve become more and more interested in over the last couple of years: original art exhibition...

If, like me, you dream of finding a hoard of railway posters languishing forgotten in a disused attic, the following blog post may prove too much to bear. For that is exactly what happened earlier this year when a lady contacted me out of the blue to say that she...

A fashion-conscious visitor to the Swinging London of the late 1960s could hardly have missed the achingly cool ad campaigns for leading women’s shoe retailer T. Elliot & Sons. From giant billboards to ‘car cards’ in Tube trains, trendy graphics and innovative product photography helped establish the brand as the...