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Auction History Result 6y0203 OFFICIAL UNITED STATES WAR FILMS linen 1sh 1917 cool H. Devitt Welsh warship art, ultra rare! Date Sold 12/22/2020 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Linenbacked One-Sheet Movie Poster (1sh; measures 27 3/4" x 40 1/2" [70 x 103 cm]) (Learn More) Official United States War Films, the 1917 World War I (WWI) posters promoting a showing of military documentary shorts concerning the war in Europe as well as war efforts in the United States. Note that there are at least three one-sheets and one three-sheet promoting these films. One of the one-sheets has great Harry Stoner art of infantry men advancing, one has H. Devitt Welsh art of a warship on patrol, and the last has art of a war plane shining a beacon in front of a ship in the water. The three-sheet has artwork of Columbia (an early symbol of America, similar to Uncle Sam) holding a U.S. flag, with a soldier and a sailor in front of her. We imagine these were used by theaters that showed short films or newsreels after the time the U.S. entered World War I, because there was surely a great demand from the public to see footage "from the front" in those pre-television days, and that was the only way to see actual footage. If anyone knows more about these posters, please e-mail us and we will post it here. NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Artist: H. Devitt Welsh Important Added Info: Note that this is the first time we have ever auctioned this style of one-sheet, with the H. Devitt Welsh art (see above)! Note that this poster was not "linenbacked" in the modern sense! The poster was placed on to a very thin linen backing shortly after being printed (this was a common practice in the mid-1910s; in the later 1910s and 1920s they switched to using a kraftpaper backing). The purpose was to reinforce them, so that they would survive, when they were passed from theater to theater, and when they were put up on walls and taken down. Even though the poster was folded (linen and poster together!), the poster has not deteriorated very much, so the linen "did its job" and helped the poster survive, because it would likely be in much worse condition had it not been backed! Also note that this one-sheet measures 27 3/4" x 40 1/2" [70 x 103 cm]. What IS linenbacking? Learn More Overall Condition and Pre-Restoration Defects with Quality of Restoration: very good. The poster has a printing defect, which resulted in white lines running across the bottom half of the tagline at bottom (likely caused by the paper getting slightly caught in the press while running through). At some point, likely soon after it was printed, the poster was attached to a thin linen with no excess (see above). It was folded across the middle and down the middle, but not another time. The poster has tiny paper loss at the crossfold and some fine surface paper loss on the bottom half of the vertical fold, with two small tears in the blue area to the left of center. The poster can be displayed just as it is, or certainly, it could be easily removed from the old linen and re-backed. Learn More about condition grades 
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