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Christmas, Thanksgiving, and being grateful...

Posted by karen ETINGIN on October 09, 2011 0 Comments

Christmas gifts from $100, wrapped and delivered anywhere you wish, framed or unframed vintage posters from 1880 on, and almost 2000 works of art - that, in a nutshell, is what L'Affichiste offers those of you who are beginning to think seriously about holiday shopping and gift-giving.

When I was little, I used to love giving gifts as much as receiving them. It wasn't that I was altruistic - I think somewhere in my little girl brain I had already figured out that if I gave a gift I would be most likely to receive one in return - it was the pleasure I had when the gift-getter opened their package and discovered precisely what they had received. I still enjoy giving gifts - now much more altruistically and hardly ever expecting something in return (as if!) - and I love helping people find just the right present for the people they love (or work with. Who they may not love but still have to give a gift to...)

A friend walked into the gallery the other day looking for a wedding gift. He's been in the gallery many times and purchased a few posters - both for himself as well as for his friends and family - but this time he was stumped. We chatted as I flipped through posters - me on one side of the table, he on the other - until he stopped me. "That's it," he said, "that's the poster I'm gonna buy for them." It was not one of the posters I had put aside to show him as suggestions, but it was, in fact a perfect wedding gift poster.

It's a wonderful travel poster created by the artist Raymond Peynet (French 1908 - 1999).  Famous for his depiction of lovers - often called the Peynet lovers - and for using his wife as his muse, Peynet created works which most often incorporated a violin-playing man who is aiming to attract the attention of a woman. Peynet created cartoons, magazines, books and posters and even scarves, dolls, medals, statues and other merchandise - all using the image of his lovers.  Charles Aznavour also wrote a song for the lovers of Peynet singing by Marcel Amont, “the lovers of paper”. In short, it is the PERFECT wedding gift poster.

In Canada this weekend we are celebrating Thanksgiving. While I actually don't celebrate the holiday, I am nonetheless grateful for so very many things, not the least of which is the luck I have in spending so much time doing something I love. I do think posters are great gifts, but more than that, I think they are great in so many other ways: they are beautiful, lively, historic, colourful, and often full of meaning. They can make us smile, force us to think, and occasionally, as sheer documentation of a time long gone, they make us remember that which we might choose to forget.

We just received a selection of amazing WWI + WWII posters - like the Let's Go Canada shown above, they are original posters which are featured in Canadian museum collections as well as in military archives around the world. They are spectacular, and as soon as I have ten free seconds, they will be listed on the site.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to see and sell these posters, I'm grateful that they were created in the first place, and I'm totally grateful for the comments you send in. Happy Thanksgiving (and to all of you in the US, Happy Columbus Day!)