Saturday, April 14, 2012

White Star Line Olympic and Titanic

This beautiful White Star Line poster, c. 1910, actually shows the Olympic, the sister ship to the Titanic.

Sale 2230 Lot 60

 Nov 15 2010 13:30 

MONTAGUE BIRREL BLACK (1884 - ?) WHITE STAR LINE / "OLYMPIC & TITANIC." Circa 1910.
40x24 3/4 inches, 101x63 cm.
Condition B+: minor restored losses in top margin; repaired tears and restoration in right margin, some affecting image; repaired tear and minor restoration in image.
An exceptional artistic rendition of the Olympic, likely completed before the ship was officially launched. This image was clearly a favorite of the White Star Line publicity department, as it appeared on numerous forms of promotional material, including a postcard (issued some time in 1910) announcing that the Olympic had been launched on "Oct. 20, 1910," and that the Titanic, which was currently being built at Belfast, would "be in commission 1911." The image also appeared on menus, advertisements, a 2nd class passenger list on the Titanic and the cover of a 1911 souvenir edition of the Shipbuilder. Often mistaken as a poster of the Titanic itself, this is not the case. When the Titanic was launched, she weighed 46,329 tons, heavier than her sister ship as a result of enclosing one of her upper promenade decks, a fact that would have been unknown to the publicity department before construction was finished, and the enclosed upper deck is not depicted here. Still, this is an extremely rare poster, with only a few copies having come up for auction over the past 25 years. Likely once the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, the White Star Line would have pulled and destroyed as many of these posters as they could.
Estimate $15,000-20,000
Sold for $30,000



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