News
Poster Jigsaw Puzzles - December 2011
We are working closely with This England Magazine in Cheltenham to produce a new range of high quality jigsaw puzzles using images from the Poster to Poster book series. The first four have just been produced and there are plans to add a further 20 images to this series in 2012. The picture below gives details of this new series, which can be ordered directly from us or from This England at www.shopwindow-online.co.uk/jigsaws.
Railway Art Exhibition - 16th to 19th November 2011
Pure Offices are hosting a prestigious exhibition of railway art at Kestrel Court, Waterwells Business Park, Gloucester. The exhibition will run from Wednesday 16 November until Saturday 19 November. The exhibition will showcase great British railway posters from by-gone eras with local author, publisher and railway historian Dr Richard Furness on hand to sign copies of his latest ‘Poster to Poster’ book, the fourth volume in a series of books that mine a rich vein of uniquely British heritage published in September. Such is the passion for railways and the undeniable romance of the steam age that forwards for the books have been written by celebrities such as Michael Palin, Michael Portillo and Pete Waterman. The exhibition will be open to the public from Thursday until Saturday afternoon, for more information contact Pure Offices on 01452 886300 and join the other passengers in an orderly fashion please!
Invitation Wednesday 10.00am to 4.00pm
Public Thursday, Friday and Saturday 9.00am to 4.00pm
30 June 2011
This has been a very busy month. Two days ago we went live on a new website, developed over the past three months, which will eventually become our new home in the coming weeks. Please revisit us at www.postertoposter.co.uk to see much larger poster galleries, improved graphics, and more news and information about our progress. In the coming weeks we are going to be adding flip pages, more gallery pictures and information about the books, together with features on the media and in education. We plan to run both websites in parallel for a few weeks. Many readers and followers have asked us about the poster book database pages, so we are looking at putting the whole 140 pages of new material in an abbreviated form on the web.
Volume 4 is almost ready. The travel part of seven chapters was completed in mid-June and last weekend saw the remaining two chapters finished. There now only remains the database notes, the list of references and the final wrap-up to be executed. There are currently 365 posters included, with a few more to add, once the final page count is determined. All available space is being filled with posters. The artist thumbnail section has been expanded to almost 80 entries, and the database is finished. This volume will be almost as large as the Yorkshire book (Volume 2), and it showcases the golden advertising years of the LNER. Many posters by Frank Mason, Frank Newbould, Tom Purvis and Fred Taylor are together for the first time. A trio of some of their work is shown below.
The draft will go off to press next month and we are told to expect finished books in September. We are looking at launching the work formally at the Great Central Railwayana auction at Stoneleigh in early October, though it will be on sale via the website in late September. We already have nearly 200 firm orders and our recent presentations have generated much interest, especially from LNER aficionados. We have had vouchers produced, so that advance orders can be taken for the book, and colourful receipts can be given for presents until the book is available.
7 June 2011
The poster exhibition at the Winds of Change Gallery, Winchcombe is creating a great deal of Interest. Some 24 posters are on display together with three local totems, rarely seen together in public. The two pictures below give a flavour of the gallery and the private viewing last Saturday brought rooms full of people.
The show runs until Sunday 12th June and has been extended by a day because of local requests. This is the first British railway poster exhibition this century and therefore is a unique opportunity to see some rare pieces. Smaller reproductions, made under licence of the SSPL in London are available for purchase, as are signed copies of the poster books. Details are available www.windsofchangegallery.co.uk
Work on volume 4 is progressing nicely, with the travel part of the book almost complete. The Rt. Hon Michael Portillo has completed the Foreword and Alan Young is putting the final touches to the hand-drawn area maps. I am still on course at the moment to launch the work at the September SRA Auction in Derby, provided no unforeseen late glitches arise, as happened with Volume 3. So far, 180 pages are written, the database is complete and the artists thumbnails section has been enlarged from Volume 3, as new material is discovered.
13th May 2011
An exhibition of over 20 original railway posters is being organised in Winchcombe Gloucestershire early next month. The advert below gives full details of the gallery and the dates to see the posters.
Works by Mason, Buckle, Steel, Merriott and Wesson will be amongst those on display. The aim is to show Britain in a colourful but nostalgic way, at the height of the railway advertising era.
25th April 2011
The past two weeks have seen us undertake book signings, after dinner speeches, involvement with a local railway progress and progress on the writing of Volume 4. On April 16th we were guests of the National Railway Museum at York for an Author day signing copies of Volume 3 of the poster series. The left hand picture below shows us preparing for the day. The cover poster – Oxford by Alan Carr Linford – was taken out of its drawer in the NRM Collection to display, along with our own poster of Weobley, Herefordshire.
That evening we drove to Newcastle to give an after dinner speech at the 75th Anniversary dinner of the NE branch of the Railway Correspondence and travel Society (RCTS). This was well attended by members and their wives from all over the UK, and it gave us the chance to talk about the development of posters and their impact on our social development in the 20th century. The right hand picture shows some of the delegates to the weekend conference arriving for the event.
JDF and Associates are supporting the Portishead Railway Group in their efforts to re-open the branchline from Bristol Temple Meads to Portishead. Their website (www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org.uk) gives details of huge advances made on this project over the past few years. The line closed in September 1964, but looking at the number of people commuting every day into Bristol, clogging roads and increasing emissions, it makes perfect sense to reinstate the station and track, to reduce commuting time from an average of an hour to just 17 minutes. Within the overall project, we have floated the idea for new railway posters, having the local school children design these for inclusion on the station, whenever that may be built. Our office managers (Pure Offices, Gloucester) are also involved in media co-ordination and linkage to North Somerset County Council: (see www.pureoffices.co.uk.). It is an excellent example of a ‘Big Society’ project making a local difference.
Finally, work is steady on volume 4. Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Norfolk are complete and the artists’ thumbnails and the database are also ready. I am currently in the picturesque villages of Suffolk and surrounded by some wonderful railway art. Hertfordshire and Western Essex are next.
4th April 2011
It has been 2 months since our last news posting, so this blog is well overdue. The two months have seen a great deal of activity, both on shipments of Volume 3 and progress on Volume 4. We have received a few reviews already on the third book (See Reviews Page) and also some letters giving us additional information on the exact locations of four of the posters, including two from The Gower, as requested in the volume text. A reader of Volume 2, living near Barnard Castle, has also given the exact locations of those wonderful Haslehust posters of beautiful Teesdale on pages 58, 59 and 62 of that book, so thank you to all those people who have written to us with much new data. This is exactly what we had hoped for.
Progress on Volume 4 has been steady and to timetable. The Introduction, Chapter 1 (Lincolnshire) and Chapter 2 (Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire) are complete, with chapter 3 (Norfolk) and Chapter 5 (Suffolk) both half written, and chapter 4 (The Norfolk Broads) completely laid out ready for the text to be inserted. We have also received some 260 hi-res images for pages throughout the volume and more are due imminently. As we said, this is going to be a large book and we are currently anticipating some 370 posters to be included. A trio of the new images are found below.
6th February 2011
Volume 3 is now published and available after several weeks of frantic efforts to get everything ready. Even towards the end the inclement winter we are having caused some delays and the books did not arrive for the formal launch at the GCRA Auction Stoneleigh on 15/01/2011 until 9am that morning, so that was tight, very tight! We have had two weeks of packing and posting to fulfil all the orders we have received.
We are happy to report that the Rt. Hon Michael Portillo has accepted our invitation to write the Foreword on the next Volume, and our work is progressing well, with the Introduction and first chapter already completed. This is going to be a large book, and judging by the first 30 pages, a very colourful one. We will regularly update our
readers on progress, but we are hoping to publish in the summer of 2011. I am currently in Huntingdonshire, en-route to Cambridge.
3rd January 2011
Firstly, we wish all our readers and project supporters a Happy New Year. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of finished Volume 3 books, after receiving sample pages from Amadeus Press in mid-December. As with the first two volumes in the series, the pages we have are really colourful and show many Midlands and mid-Wales posters in all their glory for the first time. As I write this short blog, the printed pages are in Edinburgh being bound and covered. We are still on course to receive the books around 12th January and the formal launch is being planned with the Stoneleigh GCRA auction team for Saturday 15th January. We already have over 450 firm orders for the book.
Work on Volume 4 is already proceeding well, with the whole book planned, and the Introduction already written. I will be starting on the tour of Lincolnshire tomorrow, with a mixture of fishing, seaside and landscape posters for your delight. Judi and I therefore hope that 2011 will see an acceleration of the project and we are aiming to have volume 4 available in the summer, with Volume 5 (London and the South-East) hopefully being ready just before Christmas 2011.
In the coming weeks I will be posting sample pages on this news page and also updating the gallery with the more unusual images. We have had many requests to supply poster reproductions and have come to an agreement with the Newcastle Poster Company to take our images. (contact is Steve Whittle – stevewhittle9@hotmail.com)
4th December 2010
Vol. 3 goes on the presses next week after the proofs were checked and passed. This is going to be a colourful book.
Whilst some of the modern images required little attention, some of the older GWR and early BR posters had suffered damage so the cleaning of these took some time.
The book will be available for the Stoneleigh auction in January but in the meantime we are are taking orders (see our order page) for Vol. 3.
Work has already begun on Vol. 4, which is going to be another large book. Norfolk and Essex featured heavily in railway advertising strategies and Lincolnshire & Suffolk also saw many posters produced. The cover (Purvis’s wonderful Norfolk Broads) is shown alongside . There will be nine chapters in this book and over 380 posters inside.
1st November 2010
The final draft of Volume 3 was completed in late October and the first chapters and proofs are being produced as I write this short blog. The final book statistics were 224 pages, with 302 posters and prints. The final chapter (The Influence of Posters on the Region’s Tourism) contains many posters never previously seen. The original intent of this series was always to show the breadth posters produced during the 20th century, and this volume succeeds well, even though there are slightly fewer posters than in the first two books. There are several recent artistic posters included, (produced since 2000) and some of the better photographic images from the 1990s. Publication is scheduled for early January, and the formal launch will be at the Great Central Railwayana Auction, Stoneleigh, on January 15th 2011. We have produced Christmas card vouchers to give as presents, at it had been hoped to have the book available before Christmas. (Copyright issues and quality image availability was responsible for the slight delay). Redemption of the voucher entitles the bearer to a signed copy in January.
The planning of volume 4 (The Eastern Counties of England) has already begun. This journey will start in North Lincolnshire and end at Southend-on-Sea, covering Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as Lincolnshire and Essex. I have asked the Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo to be kind enough to write the Foreword for this volume. As many of you may know, Michael’s recent TV railway journeys using Victorian Bradshaw’s Guides have been well received, and this summer he has been filming the second series. This covers the Eastern region, so if he accepts, he will be well qualified to write his short piece.
In the meantime sales of the first two volumes continue strongly and well over half the first edition printing copies have now been sold, even though volume 2 only became available in July. We already have more than 250 advance orders for volume 3.
20th September 2010
In a break from the writing, we thought it was time for another website update. Currently I am putting together the final chapter (on the influence of posters for this region), after the journey part of the volume was completed last week. The database is also complete, and the artists’ thumbnails have been updated with four new sections. We had hoped to publish this book just before Christmas, but the amount of work still required means it will be launched at the Stoneleigh auction in January, about a month after we had planned. I estimate we are about 90% complete on the book as of today, and despite the relatively low number of posters for this area (compared to the previous two books), the journey has proven to be very interesting and colourful. Many posters have been included that have not previously featured in such books, several of which are from this millennium.
Meanwhile, sales of the first two volumes continue strongly, and several articles on the evolution of posters have been published in the Railway Antiques Gazette. An article about Northumberland and Durham was published in the autumn edition of This England, and a colourful feature about the Cotswolds was recently published in Cotswold Life. Finally a short article about camping coaches was included in the latest edition of Best of British magazine, provoking a lot of nostalgic memory feedback.
10th August 2010
The blogs page has been a little quieter of late, as we take advantage of the summer break to press on with the writing of Volume 3. I am now deep into South Wales after completing the English section of this book. Alongside is the draft page 97, covering part of the Cotswolds. So far some 250 posters have been assigned, with more to go into the Introduction and final wrap-up chapter. There will be seven chapters in this book, with some containing around 40 posters. Planning changes have led to us to complete the poster journey at the north end of Cardigan Bay around Criccieth, rather than in Pembrokeshire. The database and artist’s thumbnails sections are also complete. Meanwhile sales of Volume 2 are still buoyant, with almost 1300 copies sold in less than 3 months.
12th July 2010
It has been a hectic few weeks since we last posted a blog, but in that time we have many to ship many books, both first and second volumes. The picture alongside shows a typical Monday, when orders are despatched following the weekend emails.
We are happy to report that sales of the Yorkshire books are higher than for the equivalent sales-weeks last year for the first book, and we have already received many emails of congratulations and thanks for the image reproduction in this larger book. Much more time was spent on enhancing images, as there was more damage on many of the original pictures.
Meanwhile, work is progressing on the next book. I am currently in Oxford: Stratford-upon-Avon & Warwick are next.
17th May 2010
Finished copies of Volume 2 arrived on Friday afternoon 14th May. We are extremely pleased with the book, and now that it is completed, the full beauty can be appreciated. The formal launch will be this Saturday at the GWRA Auction in Pershore.
We have almost 300 copies of this second book in the series to pack up and ship in the next few days, to fulfil all the advanced orders we have already received.
Over the past weekend, we have also moved into our permanent new business home in Gloucester, and full details are found on our contact page. In the meantime work still progresses on Volume 5, with over 80 posters used so far.
I am currently in Northamptonshire after passing through Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
21st April 2010
Volume 2 is printed. We were in Yorkshire recently to watch the some final chapters as they came off the press. The picture alongside shows us holding one of the Chapter 3 pages, which had been printed a day or so earlier. This is the section around Whitby and which contains some stunning BR posters. The book will completed in Yorkshire this week and then it is on to Scotland to be trimmed and bound. They will be available around May 14th in time for the formal launch at Pershore. Amazingly, we already have orders for more than 160 copies and this weekend at GCRA Stoneleigh we will be taking advanced orders.
In the meantime work on Volume 5 progresses and I am currently moving from Derbyshire into Robin Hood territory, Nottinghamshire. There was a surprising number of Derbyshire posters produced over the years and after careful thought, it was decided to split the county between chapters 1 and 2. Pete Waterman (or Dr. Pete Waterman OBE to give him his formal title) has written a lucid and amusing Foreword and sincere thanks go to him for doing this so quickly in what must be a very busy business schedule. He is a great person to talk with, and it is obvious he loves his railways.
Finally we have placed on-line ordering facilities for this second book on the website, so readers can now order direct from us, with £5.00 off the list price. To this, postage has to be added and we have given a variety of options for all parts of the world. If there are problems please email us at richard@railway-posters.com
1st April 2010
The final proofs for volume 2 are complete and we are checking over before printing in a few days time. The book is simply stunning, exuding colour throughout. It promises to be a wonderful journey through Northumberland Durham and Yorkshire. We have now started the third book, which will be Volume 5, Midlands and Wales, written out of sequence. This is partly due to requests from several preserved railways in the area but also because it contains our home counties of Gloucestershire (Judi) and Shropshire (Richard). It is planned to have this ready by the end of October 2010. The Foreword is written by Pop Impressario Pete Waterman. The cover (Alan Carr Linford’s Oxford) and a sample page are shown below.
The whole work starts at the real home of railways, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, where our industrial heritage began in the 18th century. There are some rare MR, LNWR and GWR posters in the opening section.
We begin the poster tour proper at Tamworth Castle in south Staffordshire and then move to the 3-spire city of Lichfield, shown above right. I am currently in the High Peak (north Derbyshire) after visiting Stafford, the Potteries and the Spa town of Buxton. Chapter 2 will be south Derbyshire’s dales, and the shire counties of Nottingham, Leicester and Northampton. Many BR era posters will feature throughout this Volume.
9th March 2010
The second volume on Yorkshire and the North East is complete and all the files are now with Amadeus Press. This means final proofs can be produced in a couple of weeks. A huge amount of digital cleaning has been done and the book positively radiates colour. We have been told to expect the finished product around 14th May 2010. This is a large book, coming in at 290 pages with 388 posters. Even then I had to leave out some gems! With a text is just over 71,000 words, it is by far the most complete treatment of railway posters of all eras from this area. The oldest is 1845 and the most recent 1996. Readers will see the steady evolution of posters through the work. It will formally be launched at the GWRA Pershore Railwayana Auction on 22nd May (www.gwra.co.uk). Below is a sample page from the end of the book, where modern posters are discussed, and alongside a section from the extensive database for the area, developed jointly with Valerie and Simon Kilvington. The book promises to give readers a wonderful journey in time and art.
We have been heavily involved with writing articles for magazines. The first was the March Edition of Scottish Memories where I look at Edinburgh and Stirling (www.scottish-memories.co.uk). Draft articles have also produced for Shropshire Life (April 2010) (www.Shropshire.greatbritishlife.co.uk) and Herefordshire Life (May 2010). A short series of articles is also being published in Railway Antiques Gazette, charting the development of posters decade by decade (www.rag-mag.co.uk). All will form useful references for poster collectors. Finally take a look at the Travelling Art Gallery (TAG) website where many more carriage prints and panels have recently been uploaded (www.travellingartgallery.com). We are working closely with TAG to ensure good coverage of each region in art.
23rd February 2010 - Gloucestershire Echo
2nd February 2010
I finished the drafting of volume 2 on schedule at the end of January. This is going to be a large book, as evidenced by the completed draft alongside. There will be over 280 pages, featuring 386 posters with a 70,000 word accompanying text. We are now putting the whole thing together to go to press at the end of this month. It will be available in April. We already have a great deal of interest and the area posters, in print together for the first time, are eagerly anticipated by many collectors. Advance ordering for Volume 2 will soon be available on this website.
6th January 2010
Firstly, Judi and I wish a Happy New Year to all the many site visitors and poster lovers.
The year has not started well weather-wise, but did start well for us on the poster book front. Poster to Poster Volume 1 was named as Scottish Non-fiction Book of the Year 2009 in the literary year end awards from the Edinburgh Evening News. (This is part of the Scotsman Newsgroup to whom we sent the book for review). The literary critique appeared in the Boxing Day issue of the paper and can be found on our reviews page. This was quite unexpected and naturally we are delighted that the many years of work have been recognized.
The progress on volume 2 is also been good and I am now in York writing chapter 9, with more than 210 pages behind me. By the end of chapter 8, I had used 308 posters. There are some real rarities included, so I hope I this meets some of the helpful input received after the appearance of volume 1.
24th December 2009
A review of the series led to the decision to increase the number of books in the series from seven to eight. The sheer number of London and Southern England posters clearly showed two books would be necessary to cover the area in the same detail as volume 1. Therefore we decided to split the southern area into Volume 6: London and the South-East and Volume 7: The Glorious South-West. Details of the geographical split and where your own county will now feature are found on the future volumes page and we have revised the information accordingly on the Poster Series page.
Book sales during December exceeded our predictions, many volumes being bought as Christmas presents, so thank you to everybody who called and wrote to us this past month.
Finally volume 2 has again moved on and is now approaching 75% complete. I am currently in the Yorkshire Dales and having the nice problem in deciding what posters to include and what to discard. This area did produce some superb BR posters and many will appear in a book for the first time. The drafting and layout work means we are still on course for Easter-time 2010 availability.
27th November 2009
Good progress in the past month on all fronts. The second Volume is 60% complete (I am now in Hull) and sales of the Scottish book are increasing in time for Christmas. The picture on the right shows the second large shipment in a week to the leading UK wholesalers in Eastbourne. All of these will be in the shops within a week. Adverts have been placed in Heritage Railway, Steam Railway, Steam World and Best of British magazines.
We are very encouraged by the overall reception the Scottish Poster book has received. The book has been reviewed by several critics and all can be found on our reviews page.
In Volume 2, the journey from Berwick to Hull means we have used 225 posters so far. I had planned to reduce the number of posters down to around 330, but this proved almost impossible and instead I will increase the size of the book to accommodate ‘some crackers’.
20th November 2009
Volume 2 is over half completed. I am currently in Hornsea, East Yorkshire after the wonderful journey down the Yorkshire Coast. The Chapters about Scarborough, Filey, Flamborough and Bridlington are packed with masterpieces. It has been so difficult to decide what to leave out, that I put most of the main selection back. There are now over 60 quite wonderful posters to see in these chapters. I am sure readers in East Yorkshire will be proud of the heritage I am showing. Just two are depicted below: both are rarely seen. They are low-res and watermarked to avoid copying.
The autumn auction scene is into full swing and we attended Pershore (14th): will be at Newark (21st) and at the end of year Sheffield Railwayana Auction Derby on December 5th. We have fliers now giving details of volume 2.
25th October 2009
We are happy to report that we have just been accepted as full Members of the Independent Publishers Guild. Based in Wales, this Trade Organization supports us professionally in pursuit of technical and customer excellence. We have been given special permission to use their logo on this website to show our affiliation.
Other activities in the past few weeks include a visit to Gardners, the UK’s largest book wholesalers, who are now stocking the Scottish poster book to supply Waterstones, Borders and other good UK bookshops. Readers can therefore order either on-line at this website or through your local bookshop. When ordering locally please quote ISBN No. 978-0-9562092-0-7 to make things easier.
Volume 2 is now progressing very well. At the time of writing I am in Scarborough, having finished the Introduction and first 3 chapters. Our journey from Saltburn to Robin Hood’s Bay has enabled 38 posters to be used. Many are unusual and previously unseen. Whitby is an especially rich town for railway posters. Overall we have used over 140 posters so far and the final count will be larger than for the Scottish volume.
5th October 2009
September saw a flurry of activity and promotional work. Sales are good and steady. Following a week in Scotland, many of the Waterstones branches in Southern and Central Scotland have ordered the book. We had very good encouragement from Leith, Princes Street (East and West), Sauchiehall Street, Stirling, Ayr, St. Andrews and Dunfermline in particular. Thank you to all the Managers we saw who gave of their time. Borders in Dundee and Glasgow have also taken the book. Two shops in Wigtown (Scotland’s Book Capital) also took the book in time for the literary festival in late September. These are Book Corner and The Book-Shop. Links will be added to our links page so Scottish residents have a local source of supply.
We had two book signings in the month: at Christies in London and at the NRM in York. The York event attracted attention in the Yorkshire Post and that article is found on our reviews page.
We have had several requests to supply full and half size reproduction posters from the book. Sadly our licence with the Science Museum precludes us from doing this, but we can recommend Travel Posters Online and the SSPL website as places to obtain copies. Follow the links on our links page to these two recommended sites. Some of the originals are now prohibitive in terms of price and a high quality repro can be almost as good.
Finally progress on volume two is steady. The Introduction and first two chapters are completely drafted and work is underway on Chapter 3. This part of the journey sees us travel from Redcar to just north of Scarborough on the scenic Yorkshire coast.
2nd September 2009
Sales are very encouraging in our first month. We have had several reviews, the latest being in the September Edition of Heritage Railway. We also supported the success bank Holiday Steam Event at Didcot Railway, where “Tornado” was running. As I am a Member at Didcot, a good contribution from the sales of each volume has helped swell Great Western Society funds. We are planning to be in Scotland during September, supporting several Waterstones Bookshops, who are now taking the book. Next week sees us in London, supporting the September Christies auction of transportation posters. There are some rare and desirable items on offer, including two posters not previously known. Full details are found at www.christies.com or follow the direct link from our links page straight to their website.
Writing work on Volume 2 is now proceeding well. The first chapter is complete and the Introduction section is more than 50% written. Three other chapters are laid out, but the whole journey is now planned and the posters selected. A sample page from Chapter 1 appears below. Notice these are two uncommon posters from BR days and will be typical of the many unseen posters that will appear in this volume.
1st August 2009
Response to the book has been very positive. We feature on the rear cover of the next Christie’s poster catalogue for their forthcoming poster auction in London in September. We have also been asked to attend the preview party, where the book will be available, and can be signed as required. This high profile event is, we hope, the first of many. We are also working closely with Waterstones so that selected stores will soon be selling the book. Naturally these are mainly in Scotland. The book is currently being reviewed by travel and book critics. The work has so far been extremely well received and welcomed as long overdue. We are still looking for poster images, especially the more colourful and modern ones. Two more sample pages are shown below.
18th July 2009
The first consignment of books arrived yesterday from Yorkshire. It really is a book from ‘The Top Drawer’ as termed by the Printers. The overall quality of the finished book is exceptional. It is the most important general railway poster book to have been published for almost twenty years, and the several hundred already-ordered copies give us a powerful send off.
We will be launching the book formally at the Great Central Railwayana Auction at Stoneleigh today. This coincides with the strong Scottish flavour from the auction itself, when many wonderful artefacts from the late John Bourhill’s collection will go under the hammer. With books to hand, we can now guarantee shipment within 24 hours of receiving orders via this website.
23rd June 2009
Printing of the first volume of 256 pages is now well underway. After examining the final pages in Yorkshire yesterday, the overall very high quality of the book can now be appreciated. Amadeus Press have done a first rate professional job. We are told they will be available in 4 weeks. This is due to the slightly slower than normal printing speed (to ensure quality) but also because the binding is appropriately being undertaken at Haddington, near Edinburgh by Hunter & Foulis. They are renowned for their high standards. Planning work on Volume 2 is well advanced and this promises to be another stunningly colourful work. There are currently 373 posters designated for inclusion, but this number will reduce slightly due to space constraints (Scottish Volume has 332 posters). Further details can be found on the Volume 2 page.
25th May 2009
A visit to the printers last week sees the book over half type-set. A lot of the images are being digitally enhanced to take away marks, damage, folds and foxing. This means the published images are clearer than the originals, so readers can see the beauty of the original poster. The whole book will be at press in two weeks and we have been promised books by the end of July. New images have been added to the gallery and over the coming weeks we intend to expand the array of posters on show here.
5th May 2009
We are now taking advanced orders for Volume 1 of Poster To Poster. Online orders can be placed through the Railway Posters website.
Click here to order
22nd April 2009
- The extensive library of thumbnails put together over the past seven years is well over 15,000 but more are sought. We are especially interested in the more unusual posters right through the 20th Century. Some examples are shown below.
- We will be attending the forthcoming railwayana auctions at Stoneleigh 24th April (Great Central Auctions), at Pershore on 16th May (Great Western Railwayana Auctions) and Derby on 13th June (Sheffield Railwayana Auctions). A final version of the text and images in the volume that shortly goes to press will be on display. Sample posters will also be displayed.
- Final graphics work is proceeding well, now that the writing phase is finished. Book will be over 240 pages and more than 65,000 words. It represents the first serious poster book on British Railway posters for well over 15 years. Since the last general book on railway posters was published, much new data has come to light.