Advertising the Allure of Old Posters

The International Vintage Poster Fair, launched in New York in 1989 and moving across the country to Chicago, Miami Beach and San Francisco, has reached Los Angeles.

Scheduled for today through Sunday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the fair will include American and European posters from the 1890s to the 1980s and several “how to shop” lectures.

“We are expanding to Los Angeles because so many people were coming up here,” said Frances Larose, whose Larose Group has promoted the San Francisco Fair for the last four years.

With 24 participating vendors from around the world, the fair will offer more than 10,000 vintage advertising posters for display and sale. To ensure authenticity, Larose said, the fair is vetted, or evaluated, by a committee of members of the International Vintage Poster Dealers Assn.

Posters originated in France in the 1870s as an advertising medium, bold in design and rich in color. Over the years they have expanded to many countries and continents, but French posters remain the classics. Recognized masters from turn-of-the-century Paris include artists Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Cheret and Alphonse Mucha. Other popular styles of poster design include Italian design from 1900 to 1930 and the Art Deco graphic design period of 1925 to 1940.

Categories at this year’s fair will include all these plus branded consumer products, world wars, the World’s Fair, exhibition, travel, sports and entertainment.

Over the last few years, the appeal of the Vintage Poster Fair has expanded from dealers and collectors to shoppers of all ages looking for original art for their homes and offices, Larose said. One incentive, she said, has been the increased use of such prints on the sets of such TV sitcoms as “Veronica’s Closet” and “Caroline in the City.”

“These posters are becoming a hot trend for home decorating,” she said. “Increasingly, they are getting into catalogs like Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn.”

“Posters represent the birth of modern advertising,” said Jason Vass, owner of Vass Gallery in Santa Monica and local representative for the fair. “They have always sold some product, whether it is a political party, corsets or bicycles, so they had to make a quick visual impact.”

“What makes them especially valuable is that most of them have been destroyed,” he added.

The early posters, produced by a stone-lithography technique, were noted for strong, vivid colors.

“Now that we have offset printing for mass production,” Vass said, “we don’t get the same warmth.”

Vass has been collecting posters as art for 18 years but only got into the business a few years ago when he moved to Los Angeles from New York and was between jobs.

“I decided to sell a few of my posters to survive, and after calling a few dealers, I thought I could do it myself. I opened my own shop on Montana Avenue in 1992.”

Now Vass belongs to an international network of dealers forever searching for posters.

“You have to dig around and keep your eye on the auctions,” said Vass, who thinks Los Angeles, with its mural tradition and Sunset Strip billboards, is a natural for poster appreciation.

Movie posters, he said, have “really exploded” on the poster world, especially those for silent-era movies, Alfred Hitchcock thrillers and the work of such classic Western directors as John Ford. The supernatural is big too, he said. “A poster for the 1932 Boris Karloff film ‘The Mummy’ went for $453,000 at Sotheby’s in March of 1997.”

When it comes to price, posters cover all bases.

“We say you can spend $50 to $150,000,” Larose said. “If you are interested in the older French travel posters, you’re likely to spend at least $20,000.”

The International Vintage Poster Fair will be held today-Sunday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St. Admission is $20 for all three days, which includes the preview from 5 to 9 p.m. today. Admission is $10 on Saturday (10 a.m. to 7 p.m.) or Sunday (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Introductory lectures on collecting posters are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Information: (310)-395-2048.