Chinese Take-away

I just discovered that Bloomsbury Auctions is having a Chinese Poster sale. Perhaps it is through my working with computers for so long, and my love of open-source software, and my enjoyment of leftwardly leaning sci-fi, and my interest in politics, and my general appreciation of art and design and symbols and signs. Perhaps all of these things make a sale like this stand out to me. But really, I just think that the images are wonderful. The colours are fantastically vivid and the images range from the completely obscure (see the strange spitting poster on the left) to more traditional propaganda in a style borrowed from Stalinist Russia.

The collection consists of over 500 original posters, most of which are considered fairly rare. Estimated fetching prices start at around £50 and scale right up to £1,500 for a collection of rare chinese New Year prints.

I think these make great collectors items even if you aren’t seriously into the rare art and prints trade. They make for unique gifts and with Christmas just around the corner, I expect this sale could do quite well. On the downside, Bloomsbury Auctions currently seems to cater to a very niche market and it will be interesting to see if they try to push their marketing further for a sale like this. If I was working in their Marketing department, I would certainly be running press releases in papers like the Guardian or the Economist by now.

Frequently Bloomsbury Auctions sales appear online at Ebay’s Live Auctions, so if you’re over the pond and these catch your eye, keep an eye out here. I may even be bidding against you! 😛