1898 Alphonse Mucha JOB Poster
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GUEST:
It was a gift, actually, from a lady who I knew when I was younger, ended up marrying my wife's uncle. They were divorced many years later. And I asked her, "Whatever happened to this poster?" A few weeks later, I get a phone call, "Come pick it up." And it's been hanging on our wall ever since.
APPRAISER:
Fantastic. And what do you know about it?
GUEST:
I know it's French. I believe the artist is Mucha, if that's pronounced right, and really, that's about it.
APPRAISER:
Well, so far, you're batting .1000. It is French.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
The artist is Alphonse Mucha. We've had some of his work on the show before, including another poster that he did for the same company.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, this company, JOB, was a cigarette rolling paper company. Printed in 1898.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
Which was before they had machine-rolled cigarettes. So if you were a smoker, you had to buy rolling paper. And it's curious, because the owner of this company, his name was Jean Bardou, so his initials were J.B. And Jean Bardou had this idea at the time, which was to sell rolling paper in little packages, and he put his initials on the front of the package, separated by a diamond. And the public immediately took to thinking that was the letter O, a stylized O. So instead of J, diamond, B, they referred to the company as JOB, and the name stuck. So this is a glorious Art Nouveau poster done in the highest artistic style. Mucha was considered the father of the Art Nouveau movement. And his style and his designs really sort of exemplified that whole movement. And this poster shows many of his classic design traits. So the beautiful woman, the halo behind the woman, the elaborate, almost unimaginably decorative hair that's cascading down her shoulders, which is all here. So that's the artistic side.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
From a marketing point of view, Mucha really did something unusual in that he provided four different levels to reinforce the brand in the eyes of the viewing public. He starts with the title, JOB. If you look in the background, the wallpaper has a very stylized version of "J-O-B". So that's the second level. The third level is, obviously, the pack of cigarette papers which she's holding, and finally the brooch is also a stylized version of "J-O-B". Great product reinforcement from an era when this kind of thing wasn't done at all. This poster was printed with what we call a fugitive color. The red, for some chemical reason, faded more quickly than anything else. And, in fact, I've seen it not faded, which is unusual, but people react to it differently because they're not used to seeing it with such bright colors. So curiously, when it's not faded, it doesn't specifically sell for more. What's it worth? Any guesses?
GUEST:
I really... I'm hoping maybe $1,000 or more.
APPRAISER:
In the world of Art Nouveau posters, it's by one of the most famous artists. It's not a rare piece, but it is a great and decorative piece, and I think that at auction you'd be looking at between $7,000 and $10,000.
GUEST:
Wow, very nice. Very nice.
APPRAISER:
But I would point out there are a few condition issues where you can see sharp folds. I think without those folds, it would be as high as $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
But even though it's common, it's so desirable, I think that's a very reasonable price to assume you might actually achieve at auction.
GUEST:
A very nice gift.
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