One way to guarantee gazing upon a winter wonderland this year is to participate in The Ski Sale. The 11 January auction original winter sports posters, presented in partnership with specialists Tomkinson Churcher, features over 80 lots promoting Alpine hotspots such as Davos, Zermatt, St Moritz, Chamonix and Val d'Isere.
Top of the tree for collectors are the original Art Deco lithographic posters promoting Switzerland’s most exclusive resorts. They celebrate a golden age of travel when the first ski resorts commissioned some of the finest designers and artists of the day to create stylish posters urging holidaymakers to visit.
The Ski Sale
Explore our 11 January 2024 auction.
Estimated at £15,000-20,000 is a classic design by Swiss graphic artist Alex Walter Diggelmann (1902-87) depicting a party on a gondola lift in Gstaad – a new addition to the landscape on the Berner Oberland pass when the poster was printed in 1938. The first ski school in Gstaad opened in 1923 with the first ski lifts following in 1934-44.
LOT 39 | ALEX WALTER DIGGELMANN (1902-1987) | GSTAAD | £15,000 - £20,000 + fees
Equally celebrated are the designs created by French illustrator Roger Broders (1883-1953) for the slopes of the Alps. Distinctive for their simple lines and bold, flat areas of colour, many were commissioned by the Paris Lyon Mediterranée (PLM) railway in the wake of the first ever Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924.
LOT 60 | ROGER BRODERS (1883-1953) | WINTER SPORTS IN THE FRENCH ALPS | £6,000 - £8,000 + fees
There are six of them in the sale including the 1929 Winter Sports in the French Alps depicting stylised figures in colourful attire disembarking from a rail carriage at the Col de Voza on the Mont Blanc massif. Graded A and now backed on linen and framed. It is expected to sell for £6000-8000.
The same guide is given to St Pierre de Chartreuse, a 1930 poster showing a crowd watching a bobsleigh run while Chamonix, Mount Blanc from the same year depicting an ice hockey game is expected to bring £4000-6000.
LOT 55 | THEO DORO (1896-1973) | SPORTS D'HIVER DANS LES VOSGES | £3,000 - £5,000 + fees
The poster Sports d’Hiver dans les Vosges was created in 1929 for the Chemins de Fer de L’Est by Théodore Pfiefer (1896-1973), the French artist better known as Theo Doro. This dramatic image of a downhill skier silhouetted against the sunlight as he speeds across the Vosges mountain range is probably his best known work. This fine example is guided at £3000-5000.
A rare British poster estimated at £500-700 invites the reader to Join the Oxford University Ski Club for the annual trip to Klosters in 1934-35. The racing that season was scheduled for December 23-24. The design of this tri-colour image is credited to James Riddell (1909-2000) who was both a prolific columnist and cartoonist and a British champion in early days of skiing as a competitive sport. Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, 'Sunny Jim' raced for Britain at Zakopane, Poland in the first ever international downhill race in 1929 (finishing a creditable eighth in a field of 60) and later he co-authored the influential Penguin handbook Ski Holidays in the Alps In it, Riddell wrote: "You do it because, once you have tried it and taken to it, there is not any other game to compare with it in the world."
Posters from the post-war years tend to be more affordable but are equally colourful, striking and redolent of the eras for which they were made. The sale includes several posters from the series advertising the beauty of the Swiss winter season created with photographs by Giegel c.1960. The image of skiers catching the rays on deckchairs on the slopes at Villars-sur-Ollo is guided at £300-500.
The hugely popular annual Ski Sale is conducted in partnership with vintage poster specialists Tomkinson Churcher. Former Christie’s specialists Nicolette Tomkinson and Sophie Churcher have curated 81 original posters from the 1920s-60s. They comment: "The Ski Sale presents collectors with colourful, decorative and striking vintage poster designs, perfect for winter sports lovers looking to decorate their home, office or chalet. There is a poster for every budget with estimates ranging from £300 up to £20,000."
11 JANUARY 2024
The Ski Sale
DEPARTMENTS
Vintage Posters
Find out more about the Lyon & Turnbull posters department, specialists and forthcoming auctions.
