Vintage posters have evolved from a means of selling something to the object of desire themselves.

Posters, those colorful, flashy advertisements, continue to be one of the least expensive ways to fill a blank wall and, at the same time, tout your taste.

There’s a poster to fit every whim, depicting anything from rock concerts to scotch on the rocks, from cancan dancers to vintage cars.

The tradition of posters in America began more than a century ago when the circus came to town and an advance man filled the streets with colorful billposters. Later, posters displayed any new attraction.

“Posters are really art of the street,” said Beth Vilinsky, head of 20th century decorative arts at Christie’s in New York. “Artistry is combined with advertising to create a reflection of the time in which it was made. The images are usually wonderful because they had to get the message across in a flash.”

And they can get a design message across quickly, some at an affordable price.

If it’s appreciation you’re after, think early posters, whether they promote movies, ocean liners, trains or alcohol.

If it’s aesthetics, for a small investment, you can buy a reprint that gives the look without the lucre.

“Our posters start as low as $2.99,” said Lisa Schiliro of Prints Plus, which has stores in Brea, Newport Beach, Santa Ana and Westminster. “Our bestsellers are ‘Gone With the Wind,’ a poster of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe together and art posters, like reproductions of works by Vincent van Gogh.”

At the high end of the poster spectrum are the vintage posters that are works of art themselves.

More than 10,000 American and European vintage posters are on display and for sale through Sunday at the International Vintage Poster Fair at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Those that are at least 25 years old are often sought by investors. Prices have been escalating since a rare “Frankenstein” from 1931 went for a record $180,000 at a Christie’s auction in December 1997.

“Good posters are getting harder and harder to find,” said John Kearns, who with twin brother Jim owns Mr. Beau J.J.’s Antiques and Collectibles in Fountain Valley. “We travel over 75,000 miles a year throughout the country looking for vintage ones.”

Their store has more than 100 vintage movie posters, with a French version of the James Dean film “Rebel Without a Cause” (“La Fureur de Vivre”) topping the price list at $998.

Others featuring Marilyn Monroe (“River of No Return”) and Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant (“Notorious”) are in the $200 range.

“Original posters of cult films like ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ‘Casablanca’ and the ‘Wizard of Oz’ bring as much as $7,000,” Kearns said.

Other high prices are awarded to posters exhibiting major stars, such as Chaplin, Bogart, Dietrich and Garbo. Movie posters from the 1960s, such as “Bullitt” or “Cool Hand Luke,” cult films and certain genres, such as early Universal horror, are also highly valued.

The development of lithographic printing in the second half of the 19th century made poster art viable. French painter Edouard Manet in the mid-19th century in Paris created the first modern poster, an illustrated advertising poster for a book. Works by Frenchmen Jules Cheret (1836-1932) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) were also among the first in this new medium.

Certainly their images of circus performers and cabaret entertainers are universally recognized. The Toulouse-Lautrec poster “Divan Japonais, 1893” went for $40,250 at the Christie’s East sale in New York in December 1997.

By the turn of the century, the Art Nouveau posters were important, as were those by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The early 1900s found the Art Deco style emerging, and posters were very important in advertising. Bold lines and colors, short messages and unusual angles captured people’s attention.

Posters from 1920 to 1939 showed works from the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Futurism and Cubism. From 1940 to 1959, posters featured the war effort and wholesome families using products such as 7Up and beauty soaps.

Those from the ‘60s and ‘70s took on a definite psychedelic aura when new technology allowed for greater freedom in typesetting and image production. Today, posters continue to be created to augment TV commercials. They can feature photography, illustrations and unusual typography, often with the aid of a computer. Certainly, Benetton’s posters and those by fashion designers such as Calvin Klein help define our times.

Because posters were originally used as advertisements, most were destroyed. That is especially true of movie posters.

By the 1980s, the movie studios realized the market for posters and started manufacturing them in massive quantities. The quality of the printing went down as the numbers in print went up. Many early posters were silk-screened on heavy paper stock rather than mass-produced by offset printing as they are today.

That means a “Titanic” poster probably won’t bring titanic prices tomorrow. In fact, 90% of movie and other posters are neither collectible nor “eventually” collectible because of their great abundance, experts say.

Quantity isn’t the only criterion. Movies that aren’t popular or posters that aren’t artistic will never go beyond a $20 value, even if they’re old.

The same is true of celebrity, rock-star and sports figures’ posters. The iconic Farrah Fawcett poster sold at the height of her “Charlie’s Angels” fame has very little value today, according to Jim Kearns.

The International Vintage Poster Fair runs through Sunday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St. Admission is $10 today (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. today and Sunday. . Information: (310) 395-2048.