Doe and Hope

Description

Commissioned by the Empire Marketing Board for the refreshing qualities of this quintessential English drink, the poster depicts a gruff and rather unsociable looking goat with the slogan above and below the typography and colouring in tandem proves a simply superb combination and the slogan itself has since been reproduced thousands of times.

Condition is fine there is some very faint foxing in places but nothing that is not consummate with age. The poster was framed more recently, probably late in the twentieth century and the frame is simple but in good overall order.

According to Victorian author John Davis, tea was the first commodity ever to be advertised in a London newspaper, the Mercurius Politicus, in 1658. In addition tea was renowned for “making the body active and lusty” and “preserving perfect health until extreme old age”.

The Empire Marketing Board was formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote inter-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to 'Buy Empire'. The EMB organised poster campaigns such as 'Tea Revives You', exhibitions, 'Empire Shopping Weeks', Empire shops, lectures, radio talks, schools tour, its own library, advertisements in the national and local press and of shop window displays. There is collection of the EMB's posters at the Victorian and Albert Museum, the Manchester Art Gallery and some originals at the Victoria Falls Hotel, Zimbabwe.

These very rarely appear for sale, due to many simply not being preserved and thus not surviving, but the boldness and simplicity of its design rings true to this day and proves to be highly sought after, particularly when set against a backdrop of banal twenty-first century advertising.