WILLIAM NICHOLSON POSTERS

I have decided to start off with the posters of William Nicholson. Nicholson is of course well known for his woodcuts and his painting, and (working with James Pryde as the Beggarstaff Brothers) as a great innovator of poster design. The posters I have come across under his own name are shown below, although some of these are merely adaptations of existing book designs and would probably have had no input from Nicholson from the point of view of the poster's design:

1. MR BLAKE OF NEWMARKET. 1897. 28 x 29cms. Printed in green & black. I guess this is more of a placard, being printed on a thin card and having 2 small holes at the top, allowing it to be hung, although I can't remember now whether these were printer's holes, or added later. The book was published with the same design stretching over both covers, in March 1897.

2. THE NEW REVIEW. June 1897. 31 x 25cms. Printed in red, black & ochre. Printed on thin card. An announcement of this famous image as a supplement to the first issue of The New Review. The image was later published in 1899 in Twelve Portraits, issued by the publishers Heinemann.




3. AN ALPHABET. 1897. 75 x 55.5cms. The book was published in October 1897, although the title page is post-dated 1898. The image shows the American issue, published by Russell in New York. Das Fruhe Plakat vol.1 no.20 gives the colours as pale brown, reddish brown & black.




4. LONDON TYPES 1898. 70 x 51cms. Printed in red, black & ochre. The book was published in November 1898 by Heinemann.
Note: As a poster was done for both the Alphabet & London Types, it is possible that one was done for An Almanac of Twelve Sports, published in November 1897 and post-dated 1898, but I have found no record of one.




5. SELFRIDGES OPENING 1909. 68 x 51cms. Printed in black. One of a series of posters done by various artists for the opening of the new Selfridges store. I have had this poster in the past, but unfortunately do not have an image.




6. THE DYNASTS 1914. a) Admiral Lord Nelson. 74 x 51cms. Brown, red & blue. Kingsway Theatre.


b) Napoleon Bonaparte. 74 x 51cms. Brown, red & blue. Kingsway Theatre.



c) Duke of Wellington. 74 x 51cms. Brown, red & blue. Kingsway Theatre.




7. AIRCRAFT PICTURES PAST AND PRESENT 1916. Size & colours not known. Fund-raising exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery.

8. POLLY 1922. c.74 x 49cms. Red, blue, mauve & black. Opera at the Kingsway Theatre.




9. CLEVER BILL 1926. 56 x 41cms. Colours not known.




10. FOOD AND FRUITS OF EMPIRE 1927. In 5 sections. 112 x 594cms. Colours not known. Done for The Empire Marketing Board. The posters were displayed together horizontally.


These are all the posters I have come across, although it would be nice to think there were posters for The Velveteen Rabbit & the Pirate Twins.