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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
World
Jacob Farr

Vintage Art-Deco Edinburgh railway posters expected to fetch thousands at auction

Edinburgh auction house, Lyon & Turnbull, have revealed that they will be auctioning off a selection of rare vintage travel posters that encouraged passengers to travel to beauty spots across Scotland.

The oldest poster dates back to 1934 and was designed by Henry Rushbury. It shows Edinburgh’s city centre as a desirable place for tourists to visit by rail.

Other posters, that were mostly created in 1950, will also be on sale at the online auction that is set to take place on Thursday, October 27. The auction by fine art and design auctioneers, Lyon & Turnbull, will be in partnership with poster specialists Tomkinson Churcher.

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The selection shows a variety of iconic Scottish tourist destinations, with two showcasing Edinburgh’s city centre and another showing Fife’s iconic coastlines as well an Art-Deco-style poster of the Forth Bridge that is expected to fetch between £6,000-£8,000.

The Forth Bridge poster was designed in 1928 by Henry George Gawthorn (1879-1941). Gawthorn worked as a commercial artist for LNER and had fine art regularly exhibited in the Royal Academy in London.

A number of other lithographic posters, which celebrate a golden age of rail travel, also represent locations such as Bute, Royal Deeside and the Trossachs. The colourful images were commissioned from a range of artists between 1934 and 1950.

Sophie Churcher from Tomkinson Churcher, Specialist Consultants to Lyon & Turnbull, said: “The posters being offered for auction evoke a warm nostalgia and represent a time when travelling by train was considered a real adventure.

LNER Rail Bridge poster. (Lyon & Turnbull.)

“They are much sought-after as a result and we expect them to be popular with collectors eager to own a piece of transport history. With a starting price of £400 for some of them, it will be interesting to see what they fetch.”

The seven travel posters that are being auctioned live online as part of the Lyon & Turnbull’s Travel & Vintage Posters sale on Thursday October 27 at 6:00pm are as follows:

- 1950 poster of the Fife Coast by Frank Henry Mason

- 1950 poster of Loch Katrine and Ben Venue by Jack Merriott

- 1955 poster of the Royal Deeside (Balmoral Castle) by Kenneth Steel

- 1950 poster depicting Rothesay on the Isle of Bute by Frank Henry Mason

- 1949 poster of The Scots Guard marching on Princes Street in Edinburgh by Lance Cattermole

- 1934 poster of the centre of Edinburgh by Henry Rushbury

Those wishing to learn more about the auction can visit the Lyon & Turnbull website here.

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