Victorian Posters

304 pp. Black-and-white illustrations. The purpose of this book is to treat posters as an effective medium for advertising specific goods and services, not as a fine art object to be hung on museum walls. It does stress commercial persuasion rather than aesthetic appreciation. The recent craze amongst collectors, dealers, and students for the Art Nouveau (1895-1915) has focused attention particularly on its posters as precious art. This has obscured, in our opinion, the true importance of the much scarcer Victorian poster as a popular art.