Greiffenhagen, Maurice (English, 1862-1931). PALL MALL BUDGET - NEW SERIES. Color lithograph after the poster. From Les Affiches Etrangeres (Foreign Posters), published by Chaix in Paris in 1897. 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches (image), 12 1/2 x 8 7/8 inches (sheet). Losses at the edges and corners of the sheet, away from and not affecting the image, else in very good condition. In the 1890's posters were used for advertising, and were designed not only by leading artists of the day such as Lautrec, Mucha, Bradley, and Beardsley, but were a source of work and income for many artists in Britain, continental Europe and America. The posters became popular with collectors, some of whom went so far as to buy them from the workman before he could paste them up on a wall. In France their were two publications in which the posters were printed in smaller sizes and offered to collectors: Les Maitres de L'Affiche (The Masters of the Poster) and Les Affiches Etrangeres (Foreign Posters). Greiffenhagen, who was primarily a painter and book illustrator, designed this poster for the magazine Pall Mall Budget, which was a weekly magazine in which articles from the newspaper, The Pall Mall Gazette were digested.
