Which makes Chris Aston a very happy man – he has one of them on sale. Aston’s Auctioneers of Dudley will be offering a first release Paramount original British Quad version in the January 17 Film & Music Memorabilia sale.
“As far as we can ascertain there has only been one prior instance of this poster being offered at auction – at Christie’s in 1997,” he says, although he could not find a price for that result. “The poster we are offering for sale was featured on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow in 1999, series 20, episode 25 or 26 at Canterbury, along with its owner who has now sadly passed away.”
Printed by WE Berry of Bradford, the 2ft 6in x 4ft 4in (76cm x 1.32m) poster is estimated at £3000-5000 at Aston’s. It is part of a deceased single-owner collection from Folkestone of more than 200 British Quad posters being offered on January 17. It was consigned by the family.
Aston adds: “Produced by George Pal (Destination Moon and When Worlds Collide), this is the style B film poster featuring the fantastic space ship art with deep full colour stone lithograph printing. This very rare quad is the only poster that features the artwork with the flying saucers apart from the US half sheet.”
In September 2005 Christie’s sold a US half sheet 1953 War of the Worlds poster for a premium-inclusive £16,800 (estimate £6000-8000). Regular vintage poster sales at Christie’s South Kensington ended this summer.
Aston’s started offering film poster selections a couple of years ago after coming across an original James bond Dr No film poster at a house clearance in Birmingham.
Chris Aston says: “Fate looked kindly at that first auction where the Bond poster (despite having folded edges and some tears and pinholes) made £3600 hammer price.
“In attendance at that sale were Steve Kennedy and his son Luke of www.originalposter.co.uk. At the end of the sale, over a coffee or two, my father and I got chatting to them and realised we had a lot in common.”
The Astons and the Kennedys teamed up and now run the film poster auctions.
Licence to thrill
Another Dr No (1962) version is for sale in the January 17 auction. Aston says: “This is the first release original British Quad film poster and the first James Bond poster too. Mitchell Hook’s painted artwork features Sean Connery as Bond with smoking pistol in one hand and a cigarette in the other and was the first image of Bond for the British cinema audience surviving well and setting the trend for later campaigns.”
Designed by David Chasman, the 2ft 6in x 4ft 4in (76cm x 1.32m) poster is estimated at £3000-5000.
