Calm down, Mel! This is FAR from one of the earliest one-sheet posters.
The very first one-sheets were in circa 1898 to 1902. The "one-sheet" (and three-sheets, six-sheets, etc) had already been in use from magic, circus, and stage show posters, so it made perfect sense to use the same sizes (although the very first movie posters were more like window card size, and they more advertised the new phenomenon than any specific movie.
There are some one-sheets from independents (like Barnsdale) that are dated from 1902 to 1904. The first one-sheets from a "name" studio are some 1907 ones from Vitagraph, but those don't have a single central image.
There are 1909 one-sheets and three-sheets from Biograph. There was a large find of different 1913 and 1914 one-sheets made in the 1960s, and near that time Collector's Book Store bought an incredible collection of file copies from William Randolph Hearst's estate that included a lot of 1915 to 1918 posters.
There was also an amazing find in Australia that included both styles of Birth of a Nation (1915) and both styles of Intolerance (1916).
And I auctioned a huge percentage of the above posters over the years!
1921 one-sheets are rare, but ones from 1918 and earlier are super rare, likely because of WWI paper drives.
Bruce
