This sale, styled Le Tour du Monde par l’Affiche, concentrated mainly on travel posters with each French département presented in turn.
Camard, some would suggest unsurprisingly, is dubious about the future for such epic sales, believing that “the market cannot absorb such quantities” and accusing them of “recycling items of limited interest”.
Nevertheless there were some considerable bids at the Wattebled sale. The two top sellers were both posters for air mail services designed by Cassandre. Above right, is Flèche d’Argent Aèropostale printed by Courbet, Paris. The 3ft 3in by 2ft 1/2in (1m x 62.5cm) poster had a small tear to the lower margin but made a mid-estimate €12,000 (£7845).
Shown below right is the same designer’s 2ft 71/2in by 231/2in (80 x 60cm) Air-Orient poster printed by the Alliance Graphique, Paris, 1932 and advertising services to a variety of locations including Syria, Indochina, Persia and Iraq. This had fold traces with tears and sold a shade below estimate at €8000 (£5230).
Can market absorb epic events?
APART from sporadic themed sales held by provincial auctioneers, Camard’s main rival on the French poster auction scene is the Paris-based dealer Frédéric Lozada, who has instituted regular 1000-lot sales in Versailles (the one in late October brought over £250,000) and, most recently, in Lille, where he offered 1120 lots under the Wattebled hammer on December 11-12.
