History of Vintage French Advertising Posters

In France in the mid 1860’s a gentleman named Jules Cheret transformed the streets of Paris thanks to the creation of his colour lithography printing technique. Cheret was also an extremely gifted artist who produced over 1000 posters over his 30 year career.

It was Toulouse – Lautrec however in 1891 who set the future of the famous French poster industry with his extraordinary poster for the Moulin Rouge. The status of the simple advertising poster was elevated to fine art and the poster craze had began! Reputable artists were attracted to designing posters due to their prestige, and thanks to this, today we are left with these incredible masterpieces of their era. A moment in time and a piece of French history that we can enjoy in our homes and galleries today. These beautiful French posters have now become highly sought after and valuable collectors items.

The original posters that we collect today would have most likely been stored by the printer at the time of their production. Overtime they have become available to the market and are now the highly sought after collectors items we love and enjoy today.

As most vintage french posters find their homes in galleries or private collections we have no way of knowing how many units of each individual poster remains today however some vintage posters are much rarer and therefore more valuable than others.

Our posters are sold exclusively on-line & viewings are available by appointment in Melbourne. All our posters are all hand selected in Paris and are genuine originals. What that means is that we absolutely do not sell reproductions and you will be the proud owner of your very own piece of French history!