THE ANDY JOHNSON MOVIE POSTER COLLECTION FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2019 Dedicated to my late wife Maria without whom this would not have been possible Andy Johnson THE ANDY JOHNSON MOVIE POSTER COLLECTION I stumbled into my first job as a fine art photographer 35 years ago at a One of my highlights of my company called A.C. COOPER’S which undertook photography for many of photographic career was the leading auction houses and antique dealers. I rose through the ranks as a meeting and working with the photographer at Christie’s South Kensington, CSK as it was known then. legendary Ray Harryhausen, I loved the collector’s departments, especially the decorative arts and the pop the father of stop-motion and film memorabilia. I became friends with the head of the decorative arts animation, he would call department and started collecting 60s Poole and Troika pottery. it “Dynamation”. I still work for the Ray and Diana I would visit antique fairs and bric-a-brac shops to find ceramics. After 250 Harryhausen Foundation to pieces or so I started to go off the boil with the ceramics, so I started to look this day. for something new to collect. So, movie posters have Maria was a big fan of movies and drew my attention to film posters. Funny I become a big part of my life, brought my first film poster from an Art Deco fair. I had the choice of buying not just the collection aspect “The Jungle Book” one sheet or “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, I ended up buying but also for the doors it has “The Jungle Book”. What a mistake. opened for me. As luck would have it Christie’s decided to have their first all film poster After 27 years collecting sale. While I was photographing the posters, I fell in love with many of the and in the words of Dennis titles and images, I started to buy a few items here and there but had no real Wheatley (my favourite direction with what to collect. author), who started his three memoirs with: In 1995 Tony Normand was hired as the film poster consultant, who later “THE TIME HAS COME” became the co-owner of the Reel Poster Gallery alongside Bruce Marchant. It’s time to sell my collection to avid and new collectors who will appreciate I became good friends with Tony and apart from undertaking all the and love them as much as I have. photography for their books and catalogues, I travelled all over the world and purchased movie posters with him. Andy Johnson Chris Ewbank, Andrew Ewbank, Alastair McCrea, John Snape, Andrew Delve, Tim Duggan, FRICS, ASFAV BA, ASFAV MA, ASFAV BA, ASFAV MA, ASFAV ASFAV Senior partner Partner Partner Partner Partner Partner [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABOUT EWBANK’S Ewbank’s was founded by Chris Ewbank in 1990. Since then we have gone on to become one of the largest regional auctioneers with specialists in many areas including Entertainment Memorabilia and Vintage Posters. From starting these auctions in 2013 they have quickly become the largest department in Ewbank’s in 2018. As the auctions have grown, we have sold some amazing collections and now we are pleased to bring you a wonderful single owner collection of Movie Posters consigned to us by Andy Johnson. Andy approached us after many years of watching carefully what we do, and we are pleased he has trusted us to sell his collection. Whether you are a James Bond, Alfred Hitchcock or Hammer collector then this auction is for you. Movie Posters have increased significantly in price over the past 10 years. We have placed ourselves at the forefront of the market with numerous bidding platforms, leading technology and experience in conducting auctions. Buyers and sellers alike know their collections are in safe hands. MOVIE POSTER SIZE GUIDE Please note all sizes are approximate as many printers used their own methods to cut and produce posters. BRITISH AMERICAN QUAD: 30 x 40 inches, printed on paper stock; the LOBBY CARD: 11 x 14 inches, Printed in sets of eight on card stock paper for display standard British poster. The image is often in cinema lobbies. designed to fit the horizontal format. WINDOW CARD: 14 x 22 inches, Produced on heavy cardboard stock. DOUBLE CROWN: 20 x 30 inches, printed on paper stock. INSERT: 14 x 36 inches, Printed on card stock paper, these posters were used ONE SHEET: 27 x 40 inches. Not as common as the Quad. in conjunction with One Sheets to promote a film. THREE SHEET: 41 x 81 inches. Not as common as the US HALF SHEET: 22x 28 inches, Printed on card stock paper, the studios often printed 3-sheet. two styles of this size. FRONT OF HOUSE: 10 x 8 inches, printed on card stock; usually ONE SHEET: 27 x 41 inches, The standard size for US film posters. The size issued in sets of eight in colour for display remained until the size was shortened around 1985 to the typical 27 x in lobbies, especially in the UK. They are 40 inches. The One Sheet prior to 1980 was almost always folded, often smaller versions of lobby card sets. and after 1980 were rolled. AUSTRALIA THREE SHEET: 41 x 81 inches, Printed on a thin paper stock, printed in two or three pieces in which the artwork had to be aligned at the time of display. DAYBILL: Usually 13 x 30 inches but sizes can vary. SIX SHEET: 81 x 81 inches, Printed on thin paper stock in four different pieces, ONE SHEET: Generally 27 x 40 inches prior to 1970’s these posters were displayed outdoors as a small billboard. They usually Stone Lithos, only limited quantities were to be put together and aligned upon display and often featured printed. It is believed that as few as 200 One artwork altogether different than the other posters. Sheets were printed for films up to 1950. 40 x 60 INCHES: Studios began printing these in the early 1930s on a thin paper stock, This explains the rarity of the Australian this poster is the size the name suggests and was usually rolled when One-Sheet. sent to the cinema. THREE SHEET: Generally 41 x 81 inches similar to US 30 x 40 INCHES: These posters like the 40 x 60 were printed on a card stock and were Three Sheets but with the addition of the normally sent rolled to the cinemas. Australian Censor Blurb. STILLS: 8 x 10 inches. Black and White glossy stills printed on photo paper have been around since the beginning. ALL DIMENSIONS ARE APPROXIMATE 4 ITALY FRANCE LOCANDINA: 13 x 27 inches. GRANDE: 47 x 63 inches. This is the standard French poster. PHOTOBUSTA: 27 x 19 inches. Glossy, high quality lithographs, used BELGIAN POSTERS: 24 x 33 inches before 1939 and are now 14 x 22 inches, as lobby cards in Europe. Size may vary. May be either either horizontal or vertical. vertical or horizontal format. POLISH POSTERS are mostly the same size as the German A1, but, ONE PANEL: 39 x 55 inches. Standard poster size. because of paper shortages during the years of Soviet occupation, the posters are not uniform as to size, paper TWO PANEL: 55 x 78 inches. Very large poster printed in 2 pieces. or colour. POSTER PRINT TERMINOLOGY & STYLES FOLDED AND ROLLED RE-RELEASE / RE-ISSUE ADVANCE / TEASER / GENERAL RELEASE Before the early-mid 1980s a vast majority of When a movie is released for another run in These terms depict the various stages of the poster posters were folded as part of the printing and cinemas, the studio will reissue a poster as part campaign. The “Advance” poster will usually be used a distribution process. As a result, finding rolled of the campaign. Sometimes, this could mean few months before the release of a film to promote the posters for movies made prior to the 1980s is changing the design of the poster completely existence of the movie. In some cases this could simply much harder. Usually posters were folded both whereas other times the same design will be the title of the movie with the text “Coming Soon”. horizontally and vertically but occasionally be used. In the case of the latter where the Next to follow would be the “Teaser” poster which would posters can be found in a “tri-fold” format NSS is the distributor, the NSS number will give away minimal details of the movie but just enough where it has only been folded twice vertically. be preceded by the letter “R” to indicate a to pique the interest of the general public. The final stage re-release. is the “General Release” poster which will be distributed LINEN-BACKING / just before the release of the movie. These posters will CONSERVATION BACKING PRINTER’S PROOF usually contain more imagery and information of the A conservation technique where a poster is These examples are produced in very low imminent release. mounted on a PH-neutral linen, cotton canvas numbers usually (but not always) with a or paper. First, the poster is “washed” in order distinctive multicoloured bar running down POSTER STYLES to deacidify the paper. It is then mounted on one side of the poster. These are essentially test Many poster campaigns will have more than one poster acid-free rice paper using an alkaline glue and posters that are sent out for approval before design.