1939 New York World's Fair Posters
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GUEST:
My mom bought a book for the '64 World's Fair. And when we got it home and opened it up, in the back, we found these three prints.
APPRAISER:
Any idea what they are?
GUEST:
We just figured they're miniatures of probably larger posters advertising the fair.
APPRAISER:
That's pretty much accurate. The World's Fair in 1939 in New York had these three, uh, primary images used to advertise them. And they actually existed in two different sizes.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
This being the smaller size-- and then there was a larger one we'd consider a standard poster size, which was about 30 inches high by 20 inches wide. The first poster, by Albert Stahl, is important, because the woman who's illustrated is not just a woman at the fair who's waving at friends. She's actually a World's Fair tour guide. And you can see that because she's wearing an official World's Fair badge on her arm. Then you have this piece by John Atherton, uh, which shows the two-- actually, they all show-- the two primary structures of the World's Fair, the Trylon and the Perisphere. And then we come to the image by an Austrian artist who emigrated to America named Joseph Binder. In the years leading up to the World's Fair, they held a competition. This was the winning entry into the competition, and it is one of the most powerful and famous of all American Art Deco images, with the representation of the Trylon and Perisphere, the airplane, the train, the ship, the stylized spotlights in the sky. It's fantastic.
GUEST:
I think that one's probably my favorite.
APPRAISER:
I would agree-- that's my favorite, also.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And it's really funny, too, because not only is it our favorite one, but it's also, I think, the most valuable one, um, this means we have good taste.
GUEST:
(laughing)
APPRAISER:
At least you do-- look how I'm dressed. Um, now, tell me again, these came out of a book for the 1964 World's Fair, which... How much was paid for that book?
GUEST:
Uh, ten dollars.
APPRAISER:
I would estimate the value on this one at $700 to $1,000.
GUEST:
(both laughing) Wow.
APPRAISER:
And I would estimate the value on these at $400 to $600.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
Okay? So you're talking about $1,500 worth of small posters for the price of a ten-dollar pop-up book.
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