In the days of digital photography, it's hard to imagine a time when ship lines and tourism boards used artists to entice travelers to faraway lands. Yet in a time when even cell phones are equipped with cameras, vintage travel posters still hold their allure.
This month is all about Escapes, and an easy mental escape is displaying art that features your favorite destinations. Featuring one meaningful place or creating a gallery wall, posters can be an accent or the focus. In many different styles, colors, price ranges and locales, travel art can work in any space.
Vintage travel posters are also a window to the past. The New York poster highlights modern marvels of architecture and transportation from the art deco-inspired 1930s, while the bright Manila print is a tiki torch away from being a '50s backyard luau.
Not all scenes need to be of faraway places. Many stateside locations are available, and that's a fun way to show hometown pride.
TOP ROW
• Atlantic City, Barewalls.com, $93.45.
• HAPAG (1928), International Poster Gallery, contact for pricing.
• Tauern Express (1912), International Poster Gallery, $850.
• Norway (1925), International Poster Gallery, $950.
• Manila (1958), International Poster Gallery, $900.
BOTTOM ROW
• Espagne, Barewalls.com, $31.50.
• Banff, AllPosters, from $59.99.
• Firenze, AllPosters, from $49.99.
• Menton, Printfinders, from $24.95.
• New York City, Art.com, from $35.99.
MORE TRAVEL THEMED DECOR ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
• Decorating With Vintage Travel Posters
• Decorating With Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• 5 Uses for Vintage Suitcases
Images: As linked above.
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Right now there's an exhibit of about 25 vintage travel posters (including the Atlantic City and Firenze ones above) at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, MS. www.LRMA.org - it's on I-59 about halfway between New Orleans and Birmingham. Up through the end of the summer.
We bought a huge poster from art.com and it's one of my favorite pieces of art now. It works SO well in our office. If you're on a budget, like me, and are hesitant to buy frame or mount something huge through art.com, just look up the price of the original poster. The original of the poster reproduction we got sells for about $900. Our mass reproduction was about $210.
I love my Monaco travel poster. Purchased as a souvenir of a trip my sister and I took in between both of our 30th birthdays. The date on the poster happens to be my birthday. A pricey purchase at the time - and even pricier to frame - it's now priceless.
Travelsigns has a twist on these vintage posters, they make them personalized with your info on signs for the wall and fridge. Very reasonable too. http://www.travelsigns.com
I love the series of posters for the local South Shore Railroad... I have four of them hanging in my home, including two in my son's nursery.
I love the vintage travel posters..., especially the French ones..., some nostalgia there. Also, maybe you get a kick out this fabulous interior shot with a row of framed vintage travel posters on the wall in a living room here.
I'm off checking out the other links.
Travel Posters Online have a huge collection of vintage posters and the quality is amazing. Their web address is www.travelpostersonline.com