David Levine collects Art Deco travel brochures of the 20s and 30s. These pamphlets are wonderfully designed and equal to the graphic impact of the more widely collected Art Deco posters. David spoke with us about his Art Deco brochure collection.
ephemera: When did your passion for Art Deco design begin?
Levine: My passion for Art Deco design started when I was 10. I saw a book on Art Deco steamship posters at my uncles’ apartment in New York City in the 1970s. At the time, my interest seemed to be something that would have to be satisfied by books, magazines, and exhibits in museums.
That was what I thought until I got to Prague.
The collection actually started while I was on my way to Prague. We had stopped in London on our way to Prague and one day in London we visited the British Museum. Afterward, we wandered down Museum Street, and stumbled on an Antiquarian book store. In this store, I notice a small brochure and I bought it.
Later, in Prague, I was walking through the streets of Prague's Old Town, and I passed an Antiquarian book store. I went inside and there were bins of old paper items. Inside the store, there were travel brochures, ocean liner time-tables, and luggage labels with Art Deco and related imagery. I couldn’t believe it. And I was hooked.
These travel brochures and booklets, travel schedules and event programs, poster stamps, advertisements, and luggage labels, were small, and as such, more affordable than a large-size poster that cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. In fact, the small items often had the same images that appeared in the large posters, except that they were smaller, readily available, and not in as high-demand as posters. And I just liked the small format paper items.
ephemera: What challenges or obstacles do you encounter in collecting? How do you overcome these challenges?
Levine: Besides money, the biggest challenge is the obvious one--finding material. When I lived in Prague, this was as much a problem as in the U.S.; however, there were more sources to visit in Europe. Before eBay and Antiquarian book search sites like abebooks.com, it was much harder to find material in the U.S. The material was there, but it was often in the hands of dealers, and the price at which they sold it--to cover their costs--made the final price too expensive for me. It took some serious effort: going to shows, antique shops, and writing letters to people.
The emergence of eBay in the late 1990s, and the Web in general, greatly increased my access to material. It also helped get closer to the finder and reduce the price at which material could be bought and sold. The Internet allowed for the coming together of buyers and sellers in a manner that simply did not exist previously. It was a huge boon for my collection. In fact, most of my collection has been purchased since I started using the Internet in 1998.
The next challenge became the problem that Google and others have helped answer which is The Search. Knowing how to search the Web--what terms to use--has been crucial in finding material. I think any serious collector must overcome this problem. The Internet creates a forum where buyers can meet sellers, but unless you can weed through the millions of items, the effort will not be sustainable.
ephemera: What are your favorite items in your collection, and how do they inspire you?
Levine: I have an undergraduate degree in history and political science and a graduate degree in International Affairs, so my initial interest in these documents was initially historical.
The common thread which runs through these images is the sharply defined Art Deco imagery which embodies a psycho-cultural, design, industrial, and commercial aesthetic, specific to the time in which they were created. These documents, besides being visually beautiful, are historic cultural artifacts of a lost age...the pre-World War Two industrial age. They look past the horrors of the First World War; they are optimistic in their outlook that industry and technology would lead the world forward. This dream state was swept away by the horror and tragedy of World War Two, and the locking away of half of Europe behind the Iron Curtain.
As for my brochures from the former Soviet Union, they speak to the lie that was that regime and which was propagated through propaganda which, beautiful as it might be, served one of the worst totalitarian states in history.
ephemera: What’s your advice to achieving success as a travel brochure collector?
Levine: Persistence and dedication would be my best advice. Finding material--as any collector can attest--is 95 percent of the battle. Learning where to look, how to search, and how to judge what is of interest from a long list are all key skills.
ephemera: What resources do you recommend?
Levine: There are many good books which review various periods of commercial and poster design published in the U.S. and Europe, which help identify artists, sets of work, and related items. There is an excellent set of books by Stephen Heller and Louise Fili: Italian Art Deco: Graphic Design between the Wars and Euro Deco: Graphic Design Between the Wars.
There are also a number of period magazines,which if they can be found, are very useful for background material. The best in my opinion was Gebrauchsgraphik/International Advertising Art. This journal is an example of the way history worked its way on this world. I also recommend the wonderful catalogs and website of Swann Galleries in New York, which is one of the leading poster auction houses in the world.
Storage is crucial. In my opinion, there is no point in collecting if you don’t take care of what you have. I use a number of archival quality products manufactured and sold by a firm called Light Impressions. I use archival plastic envelopes, binders, and boxes to store my collection.
I also have it insured--something that I cannot recommend enough. A number of dealers essentially shamed me into this by making me calculate the replacement value of my collection. The best insurance for collectors can be had from the Collectibles Insurance Agency.
ephemera: It’s tremendously exciting to see these great items from the Art Deco period. I know our readers will be very interesting in these pieces. Thank you for sharing your collection and expertise, David.
Search Abebooks for the books listed in this interview.
