The coveted one sheet movie poster for the 1931 classic Cimarron, bursting with color and boasting provenance to the storied Berwick Discovery could fetch $50,000+ at Heritage Auctions’Vintage Movie Posters Signature Auction July 25-26 in Dallas. The auction’s nearly 1,000 famous movie posters are punctuated by several fresh-to-market collections from around the globe.
The Cimarron one sheet came out of an attic in 2012 and was found in a small country auction in Berwick, PA, with several other posters stuck together with wallpaper paste, which had preserved them for more than eight decades.
A style C one sheet for Universal’s 1936 film My Man Godfrey is one such extremely well-preserved find poster. The rare and highly significant one sheet rarely appears at auction and the art deco infused style C version features artwork by the venerably Karoly Grosz (est. $35,000+).
A one sheet for Stagecoach, one of the hobby’s rarest movie posters, survives in rich, stone litho colors (est. $30,000+). Much like the film, the poster perfectly captures John Ford’s auteur as he directed John Wayne to stardom in what is considered a classic Western drama.
The auction also stars The Three Stooges across four, rare one sheet finds and five collectible lobby cards. A scarce one sheet for Playing the Ponies (est. $20,000+) will cross the block as will an exceedingly rare silk screened stock poster of the timeless comedy trio (est. $6,000+).
An important collection of 60 animation-themed movie posters includes a rare one sheet for The Klondike Kid(est. $30,000+). The Mickey Mouse cartoon was considered an instant classic when United Artists released it in 1932 and its poster is highly sought after for both its composition and colorful depiction of the short’s three main characters. A larger than life three sheet stock poster promoting Mickey Mouse dates to 1932 (est. $20,000) and a scarce one sheet for RKO’s cameo-packed Mother Goose Goes Hollywood from 1938 (est. $15,000+) is also another highlight.
A private collection of 40 rare Swedish one sheet posters encompass some of the most breathtaking poster art ever used to promote film. “Predominately from American films and many from the 1920s, it’s a true blessing many of these vintage posters have survived in such a high grade, due to the notoriously fragile Swedish paper used in that era,” Smith said. “Many are sexy, sultry, and use amazing imagery of stars and typography.” The collection offers a poster for The Wizard of Oz (Fribergs Filmbyra, 1925) from the first and only 1920s adaptation of the novel (est. $6,000+).