Collectors\' Motor Cars and Automobilia

AUTOMOBILIA | 13

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CARLO DEMAND (GERMAN 1921-2000),
‘DELAGE - 1927 FRENCH GRAND PRIX’,
signed to lower right corner, gouache on artists’
board, depicting Robert Benoist in his 1.5 Litre
Delage 155B leading Albert Divo in the Talbot
700, on his way to victory at Montlhery on 3rd
July, 39 x 70cm, mounted, framed and glazed,
the rear of the frame bearing artist’s business
card and hand-written annotation.
£1,000 - 1,
€1,200 - 1,

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“KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” LONDON:
HIS MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE
(HMSO), AUGUST TO SEPTEMBER, 1939,
printed in red on white thin wove paper, with
George VI crown above, designed by the MOI
and HMSO, and printed in preparation for a
civilian poster campaign in the event of invasion
or aerial bombardment of England, median size,
29.5 x 19.5 in (75 x 50 cm), unused, central
horizontal crease, unmounted.
£4,500 - 5,
€5,200 - 6,

The “Keep Calm” poster has, over the past
decade, become the classic poster of Wartime
Britain. It is not known exactly how many
survive. This is a median format sized example
while most of the ones that have surfaced
thus far have been the window pane small
sized versions. In early April 1939, six months
before the Declaration of War in September,
the Ministry of Information (MOI) started
forming a policy on posters to be issued in
times of National crisis. The MOI and HMSO,
working closely together drew up poster
designs between June and July 1939, the
aim to produce simple artwork for posters to
help the population at the time of forthcoming
national crisis which would boost the morale
of the general public. Eventually three ‘Home
Publicity’ designs were chosen and printing
of these posters started on 23 August 1939.
Two of the designs “Your Courage, Your
Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring us
Victory” and “Freedom is in Peril, Defend it with
all your might” were printed and distributed in
their millions and released to be put on public
notice boards, stations, and other buildings,
even huge 50 sheet versions were put on large
billboards. The “Keep Calm and Carry On”
poster was held back for times of severe stress,

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perhaps an invasion or bombing campaign. It

is said that 2.5 million of these posters were

printed between August and September 1939,

but questions were raised in the press and in

government about the content and style of the

campaign, so the “Keep Calm and Carry On”

posters were not officially released en masse

and the large majority were put into store.

Records are incomplete but it is believed the

stock was pulped in April 1940 as part of a

paper salvage campaign. It is documented that

a few were released and posted, and there are

examples in the Imperial War Museum, London

and in the British National Archives. Barter

Books in Alnwick in 2000 found an example of

the median size poster, a small cache of five

were then discovered in the Midlands circa 2000

by a private collector and a further collection of

15 were found in Cupar, Fife Scotland, from the

family of a veteran of the Royal Observer Corps,

as seen on the BBC programme The Antiques

Roadshow.