first edition Poster
1935 · [Bay Area CA]
by Blondel, W.
[Bay Area CA]: Copyrighted -1935- W. Blondel, 1935. Poster. Entrepreneur-generated aerial view looking north from San Francisco's embarcadero, shows (left to right) the Golden Gate Bridge, horizon of Marin and other counties extending to western Berkeley with foreground of Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena Island and an invented Exposition-scape. Appears to be based on a photograph but every Frisco building (hundreds!) has been worked over with pen and ink for "clarity" or to base the "copyright" claim or just out of sheer inspiration. This peculiar b&w graphic measures 8x21 inches centered on a long folio sheet (12x24") of reasonably alkaline paperstock. Item is not from a book, but a stand-alone poster. Not in great shape; it has been creased vertically in several places and probably at one time was rolled, and we see an area damaged with vertical dampstaining (occupies some 2x5 inches of marginal space below image of Bay Bridge's city terminus), the sort of odd damp patterning that occurs when rolled-up paper is briefly exposed to water. (Inventory #: 253429)