Vintage Ski Posters
A Buyers' Guide
By Estella Shardlow on Wednesday 11th January, 2012
For anyone who’s ever curled up with a chocolat chaud and fondue after a day on the slopes or stepped outside their chalet to a landscape of immaculate fresh powder under an icy blue sky, skiing is a captivating experience that offers thrill and indulgence in equal measure. It’s no surprise then that images reminding people of their time in these mountain paradises have become such popular and sought-after collectibles.
The earliest ski posters cropped up in the early 1910s, coinciding with the appearance of the first ski resorts, which were St Moritz in Switzerland, Megeve and Chamonix in France. Previously skiing had been the preserve of a handful of daredevil explorers, who were prepared to scale the slopes on foot then navigate through the unexplored terrain. One of skiing’s original advocates was none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who completed the world’s first ski tour in 1884, near Davos in the Swiss Bernese Oberland Alps.
A key attraction to this type of memorabilia is their usability: unlike the one-off pleasure of a bottle of wine or stamps stowed away in an album, these posters are works of art made to be displayed – ideally in a ski lodge and increasingly in the home too.
The resort is the key factor when it comes to collecting ski posters. The most popular destinations are the old money resorts of France, Austria and Switzerland, those that have a long, illustrious history yet are also still up-and-running today. Foremost among these are St Moritz, Pontresina, Gstaad, Murren, Davos, Klosters and the Mont Blanc resorts of France including Chamonix and Megeve.
Many of the early resorts were at a lower altitude to those we visit today due to the fact there were no lifts or cable cars, and resorts had to be accessed solely by foot or horse. Consequently there are some beautiful posters for long-since abandoned resorts (typically 1500 metres) that are surprisingly low in value because few contemporary skiiers have heard of them. On the other hand, many people set out looking for Art Deco posters of Verbier, St Anton or Courchevel, which is a lost cause seeing as these didn’t actually become skiing hubs until the 60’s.
Before the widespread use of photography these posters were designed by French and Swiss artists who were trained in traditional techniques of illustration such as stone lithography and commissioned by hotels or regional tourist bodies. By the 60’s there was a shift to incorporating photography into posters and these too are now eminently collectible. For example, this fabulously 60’s poster Courchevel which offers to the contemporary eye a swinging, tongue-in-cheek retro appeal.
Look Out For: In terms of names, there are several artists (and incidentally all excellent skiers too) whose designs are especially sought after, such as Burkhard Mangold, Otto Baumberger, Hugo Laubi, Herbert Matter, Ludwig Holwein and Martin Peikert. French artist Roger Broeders is possibly the most popular of all, thanks to his iconic Art Deco-period work for the French PLM railway company. The world’s most expensive auction of a ski poster was £38,000 at the Christie’s ski sale in 2008 for the Russian ski poster pictured above. Resorts outsell regional or national posters, so one for Cortina would be more valuable than for the Dolomites or ‘Ski Italy’, for example.
Material Matters: Designed as seasonal pieces of advertising, ski posters were never made to last. They were invariably printed on very thin paper for pasting onto billboards and inevitably very few survived. Not all posters require it but professional linen backing of the poster is the recommended way to preserve and stabilise your poster for future generations. The post-conservation state is what’s valued with these posters, so don’t let the fact it has been backed put you off – the key is the condition it’s in afterwards.
The key to differentiating between an original and a reproduction poster is the printing technique. Stone lithography was used in the sought-after deco years, a technique that created large planes of rich, matte colour. Compared to offset lithography, which was used increasingly after the war, this effect has more depth and lustre. An offset print, conversely, will be made up of tiny coloured dots up close, like a photo in a magazine.
Price Points: For a clean, undamaged poster expect to pay from £500-700 at the lower end of the scale. The sky is the limit for high-end posters but there is no doubt that a budget of £1,000 – 3,000 will be sufficient to acquire a highly collectible poster from a top resort. However at auction the prices can shoot up for iconic pieces with particularly striking graphics. One example is the ski jumping poster for Zermatt that sold at Christie’s for £23,900 in 2004. It’s worth paying for the best available example, as quality is always collectible.
Experts have estimated that in the last 10 years values have increased by several hundred per cent, however the market still looks cheap to enter compared with other segments of the art market such as modern British artists or Pop art.
Beyond Posters: There are some great examples of vintage skis and poles out there, which can look fantastic mounted above the fireplace in a chalet, but these are usually considered a one-off buy rather than something that’s concertedly collected. Then there are ski luggage labels and poster tax stamps. These offer an even more affordable way to collect ski and are often beautifully intricate pieces, especially those surviving from the 20’s and 30’s, yet as tiny fragile objects these obviously can’t be displayed and enjoyed in the same way a poster can.
VS Tip: Start off with a poster for a resort or region that you’ve visited - the beauty of these items is that they act in part as a souvenir for a past travel experience, as well as being beautiful pieces objectively. And if you’re buying as an investment, remember that ski action scenes typically win out over pure landscapes.
