I don't want to leave y'all empty handed so I'll post my newest acquisition
While it may not be to everyone's taste (it's not my favorite Polish poster by a long shot), I cannot overstate the rarity of this poster. It's a first release Citizen Kane from 1948. And though this poster is absurdly rare, the image is not. A bit of history helps to explain why...
Early elements of the abstract Polish designs actually start before WWII, but after the war when the communists first came into power all those elements came together as we know them today. The communists were in power in Poland after WWII, but there was a fair bit of autonomy. This creative period was short-lived though -- basically only 3 years from 1945 to 1948. In 1948 Yugoslavia rather publicly distanced themselves from the Soviets. Not eager to allow others to follow, strict Stalinist rule was implemented in most Eastern Bloc countries starting in 1948. All printing presses were confiscated by the state and run by the Russian-trained propagandists (the art during this time looks very Russian and nothing like the Polish designs we know and love). All distribution of Western films in Poland was essentially halted. This period lasted from 1948 until 1956 when, 3 years after Stalin's death, Khrushchev denounced Stalin's cult of personality and started allowing more autonomy again. Internationals films were again screened and many of the designs from the 1945-1948 period were re-released. This is also when the "Polish School of Posters" really started to flourish.
So basically, that is why this image is common -- because there have been many sales of '58 re-release version. Interestingly, before the Soviets took over in 1948, movie posters in Poland were B1 size. However, with the Soviet crackdown came a standardization of printing across most Eastern Bloc countries. That is why Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and East German posters are all A1 size. The '58 version is also A1 as would be expected, but this first release poster is B1. The Poles returned to the B1 size for movie posters, but not until the late 70s.
I've always wanted this design for my collection and I just assumed I would be buying the '58 re-release -- mainly because a 1948 version had
never been sold at auction before. Well, I recently met a really cool collector who has an incredible collection and he offered me this first release poster. I was hesitant at first -- mainly because I wasn't sure how the market would value it. Would people care about the history and place a premium on this poster for being a first release? Or I guess, more importantly, would TWO people care and fight over it so I could recoup my money someday? So I started to ask around to various Polish dealers to find out what these sell for. I got the same response from everyone -- in the 20/30/XX years they had been collecting and selling none of them had ever seen one change hands. There are also many museum collections in Poland and they said very few had this poster.
That was convincing enough for me and I went ahead with the purchase
