Promotional Material And Invitations For Fortnum & Mason And Lund Humphries. Kauffer, E. Mcknight.

An attractive collection of Kauffer's promotional artwork, comprising invitations designed by him for the launches of Fortnum and Mason's Autumn 1933, Summer 1934, and Summer Sports 1935 clothing collections, together with an undated design for "Spring" and an invitation to his own solo exhibition at the publishers Lund Humphries from 13 March to 3 April 1935. The items comprise: 1) Invitation to Kauffer's solo exhibition at the publishers Lund Humphries. 2) Invitation to the launch of Fortnum and Mason's Autumn clothing collection, 19 September 1933. 3) Invitation to the launch of Fortnum and Mason's Summer clothing collection, 5 June 1934. 4) Invitation to the launch of Fortnum and Mason's Summer Sports clothing collection, 28 May 1935. 5) "Spring" design, without text. 6) A newspaper clipping, dated by hand to 24 May 1988, reporting on the London Transport Museum's exhibition of posters for the Underground. Kauffer's design for Kew Gardens Station features in the article. Kauffer moved to London at the beginning of the First World War. He is perhaps best-known for the 140 promotional posters that he produced for the London Underground, which led to commissions from other established names in the capital and "surreptitiously introduced Cubism, abstraction, geometric nonfiguration, and Surrealism to the British commuter. His most daring nonfigurative designs for Shell, Lund Humphries, and Fortnum & Mason exploited geometric forms and block lettering and stood at the cutting edge of design" (Twyman, p. 140). Hailed by contemporaries as the "poster king", Kauffer also produced works for Shell-Mex, American Airlines, illustrations for T. S. Eliot's Ariel poems, and book designs for H. G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and Ralph Ellison. "The artist in advertising is a new kind of being", Kauffer wrote in 1938. "His responsibilities are to my mind very considerable. It is his business constantly to correct values, to establish new ones, to stimulate advertising and help to make it something worthy of the civilisation that needs it" (quoted in McLaughlin). Kauffer's collaboration with Lund Humphries began in the early 1930s. In addition to commissioning design work, the publishing firm provided him with a studio and exhibition space, appointing Kauffer as their art director in 1930. The first exhibition held at Lund Humphries was a show of work by Kauffer and American photographer Francis Bruguière (1879-1945) in 1933, which included some of their collaborative efforts for women's fashion company Charnaux. Kauffer had his first solo show at Lund Humphries from 13 March to 3 April 1935; the catalogue included a 1925 essay by Roger Fry, who had championed Kauffer's work: "those of us who happen to like works of art have often cause to bless him for a moment's unexpected pleasure in the depressing intervals of journeys across London" (quoted in Sudhalter). In 1934 Lund Humphries gave Man Ray his first London exhibition, and the following year Kauffer and he were sharing studio and darkroom space. That year they collaborated on a brochure for Charnaux, with Man Ray's photograph of a Venus de Milo cast. This collection also has an interesting provenance: the envelope is addressed to Alice Meynell (1911-2008), niece of Francis Meynell (1891-1975), the co-founder of the Nonesuch Press, purchased from the bookseller Kulgin Dalby Duval (1929-2016), who was partially responsible for collecting some of Scotland's most priceless literary archives, including Hugh MacDiarmid and George Mckay Brown. Adrian Sudhalter (ed.), Works from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, 2021; Aimée McLaughlin, "A New Show Celebrates the Work of Graphic Design Pioneer E. McKnight Kauffer", Creative Review, 15 September 2021, available online; Michael Twyman et al. (eds.), Art for All, British Posters for Transport, 2010. Together 6 items: 5 cards (approx. 175 x 125 mm) printed in colour with Kauffer designs, 3 of which are folding, one of which has a perforated edge, and o