Onslows

Onslows is an auction house specialising in vintage posters. The company was set up in 1984 and now conducts online sales only. Viewings take place by appointment at their Dorset office.

One of their most notable auction was the sale of an important collection of vintage posters from the British Postal Museum and Archive sold in 2015.

Pick of the week: The Kitchener call to arms that inspired a classic poster design

07 June 2021

The stern face, luxurious moustache and pointing finger are instantly familiar – but the message below Kitchener’s intense gaze not so.

Russell Flint returns in the same packing tube

21 December 2020

The mixed-owner element of a recent Onslows’ sale included a William Russell Flint (1890-1969) LNER poster showing Bamburgh Castle.

Travel posters: Quality counts as classic examples at auction underline the appeal of rare works

21 December 2020

A ‘superb connoisseur’s collection’ of classic travel posters underlined the appeal of rare works from the biggest names of this genre

William Russell Flint railway poster for Bamburgh emerges at Onslows

19 October 2020

Sir William Russell Flint (1890-1969) is an artist well known for his watercolours, often featuring exotic landscapes and ladies with not a lot on.

Pick of the week: ‘Blonde bombshell’ poster makes big impact at auction

22 July 2019

A controversial Second World War poster by renowned designer Abram Games (1914-96) has sold for what is believed to be an auction record.

Classic wartime posters impress in Dorset auction including a probable Abram Games record price

18 July 2019

A poster which is one of the most famous worldwide is also one of the rarest: just six copies of the British First World War design showing a fierce Kitchener pointing at YOU are known to exist.

Complete set of classic Art Deco-style vintage travel posters by Tom Purvis for sale at auction for the first time

27 June 2019

A rare opportunity to buy a whole set of one of the most popular Art Deco-style travel posters ever produced is coming up at auction on July 12.

Recruits roar into battle encouraged by a poster

19 November 2018

This classic First World war recruitment poster with the Old Lion of Britain calling on the Young Lions to answer the call to fight is estimated at £200-400 in Onslows’ poster auction on December 14.

Civil war posters recall memory of a Republican fighter

11 December 2017

Evocative propaganda posters are being offered by specialist auction house Onslows on December 15 from a conflict that raged between the world wars.

Art Deco transport posters unite the sleek and the speed

07 November 2017

Art Deco was a style that epitomised speed and power, wrapped in a sleekness that dominated design from furniture, ceramics and glass to architecture and sculpture.

Fortunino Matania's posters of Southport Lido – a game of spot the difference

04 September 2017

Two slightly different versions of Fortunino Matania’s (1881-1963) desirable Southport Lido poster topped a July 7 online auction at Onslows (20% buyer’s premium) of Dorset.

Olympic poster that tells torchbearer’s story

27 June 2012

This original poster for the 1948 Olympic Games by Walter Herz (b.1909) will be offered at Onslows’ internet auction of vintage posters on June 29.

A little stick of Blackpool pietra…

29 January 2002

If 1930s Blackpool looks like a British version of the Italian Riviera it is because this poster advertisement, right, was designed by a Neapolitan watercolourist, Fortunino Matania, for the LMS railway company whose trains serviced the Lancashire resort.

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