I was confused when this arrived the other day. In order to explain my confusion, I'm going to quote the entire information blurb from the back of the card.
Underground
Boat Race
Charles Pine, 1923
Copyright Transport for London
Charles Paine was a versatile and prolific designer. His time at the Royal College of Art was interrupted by military service. After graduating Paine left London to work for the Art Department of Edinburgh College of Art. He then went on to work in Glasgow, designing stained glass for Guthrie and Wells. During the 1920s he designed textiles and posters for a wide range of clients. In the 1930s he lived and worked in Welwyn Garden City, before moving to Jersey.The only problem is that I still couldn't see the connection between London Underground and the Boat Race. However I've now done some ferreting around and I find that London Underground produced posters to encourage people to travel to the Boat Race by tube and they did this from 1910 right up until 1990.
In an effort to encourage people to use the tube outside peak hours, they advertised all sorts of sporting events, but the posters for the Boat Race (according to the Boat Race people) were the most visually stunning.
I've now spent a happy half hour browsing the London Transport Museum's online shop. do you know you can now buy armchairs and sofas covered in the new Routemaster moquette? The designs are the same as those used on London’s transport vehicles. The latest must-have, apparently.
Ooooh, I really love this postcard. I just love that symmetrical design, it reminds me so much of the designs I remember seeing around London in the late 70s / early 80s (it is probably where my love of art deco / art nouveau stems from) (I think).
ReplyDeleteI also love the idea of taking a short trip from London and seeing things like this.
This is actually probably one of my favourite ever. I think it's a wonderful design. I wasn't sure if it was intended to be landscape or portrait but in the end decided it didn't really matter.
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