£3.99 – £14.00
The 1938 Championnats de France Internationaux de Ski or the 1938 International Ski Championships of France were held on the Côte D’Azur better known as the French Riviera!
That’s right! A place known for it’s Mediterranean climate with sunny, hot summers and mild winters was going to be the venue for the 1938 Championnats! Even the regions nickname Côte d’Azur was given to the County of Nice because the climate was similar to that in Northern Italy. When even in winter, the sky is a blue as its ‘azure’ coloured sea.
In the early 20th century, the Azur was the place to be seen. If you were anyone worth knowing, you spent your days promenading or taking the ‘healing’ waters and nights at the casinos and evening soirees. It wasn’t a place for snow sports!
In fairness, the choice of destination was long overdue. The first International Ski Championship was held in 1907. Up until this point, the event had only taken place in resorts such as Chamonix, Montgenèvre and Luchon.
In 1933, Fortuné Altari, a former racing cyclist organised a new competition that ‘was going to astonish the whole of France’. The event was going consist of a ski race on the snow-covered slopes of the Col de la Cayolle in the morning followed by a swimming event in the Baie des Anges in Nice, in the afternoon. The event was a huge success and gave the Cöte d’Azur the publicity it needed to betaken seriously as a potential competition destination.
The Cote d’Azure went into overdrive to develop the facilities need to hold such an event. Roads were constructed in the heart of the Alps, a cable car was built at the Auron ski resort and a second ski jump was created in Beuil.
Everywhere, we began to hear about the winter sports resorts of the Coast. All that remained was to develop tens of kilometers of roads in the heart of the mountains, to inaugurate the large Auron cable car in 1937 and to build a second ski jump in Beuil – the Launes Olympic ski jump.
The dates were set for the 10th to 17th February 1938. Under the guidance and organisation of the Federation Francaise De Ski, Beuil, Valberg and Auron were finally ready to host the French Ski Championships.
The Federation Francaise de Ski and the French Paris, Lyon and Mediteranean (PLM) railway commissioned a young twenty one year old French artist Paul-Gayet-Tancrede, or ‘Samivel’ to promote the event.
In the 1930s, the art deco style was all the rage. Clean lines and geometric letters and shapes were used to create posters that were both modern, fresh and stylish. Samivel has illustrated the two/three colour poster predominently using azure blue to emphasise the Côte D’Azur venue.
The art deco style popular in the 1930s is very firmly grounded in the design, and the dynamic drone-like overhead view of the downhill skier carving up the snow as he speeds down the mountainside gives the viewer a sense of motion and excitement. It’s not yet got the Samivel trademark look, but it’s certainly an attention-grabbing piece of art.
The poster reads: 1938 Championnats de France Internationaux de Ski. Du 10 au 17 Fevrier 38. Sur La Côte D’Azur.
Paul-Gayet-Tancrede is better known by his nom de plume ‘Samivel’. A name he’d taken in homage to Sam Weller the tongue in cheek and phlegmatic servant of Mr Pickwick! in the Charles Dickens book The Adventures of Mr Pickwick which he’d read as a child.
Samivel was one of those people that could turn their hands to anything. To call him an artist is to do him a serious disservice. During his career, Samivel was a writer, poet, graphic designer, illustrator, cartoonist, film maker, photographer, explorer and lecturer.
Probably best known for his mountain watercolours and ski/travel posters. Samivel wrote plays, short stories and a booklet of songs. He wrote fifty books and produced fifteen films. books.
It’s no secret that many vintage French skiing posters can be expensive – but some are rarer and more highly sought-after than others. This 1938 Championnats de France Internationaux de Ski poster is a great example. Original copies of this poster are very hard to come by, and when they do show up at auction, they usually sell for well over £6,500.
Getting your hands on one of these bad boys is almost impossible and if you can find one you won’t get much change out of seven grand. Yes. if you can afford an original, it’s well worth the purchase and their value is only likely to go up. For most of us though, it’s never going to be possible.
With this in mind, you might want to consider our reproduction poster instead. It may not be an original and it’s not likely to increase in value, but it’s definately great value and it will still look superb on your kitchen or dining room wall or maybe in your home office. It’ll look great in the background on your zoom meetings! Go on treat yourself. You won’t be disappointed!
Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.
The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.
These digitally enhanced posters are professionally printed with fade resistant inks on to a thick 300gsm silk poster card.
A4 posters are printed on to 300gsm silk artboard
A3, A2 and 50x70cm posters are printed on to 230gsm poster paper
All posters are despatched by 2nd class Royal Mail.Posters are posted in either a hard backed envelope clearly marked ‘Do Not Bend’ or a sturdy postal tube.
This listing is for prints only, frames shown in any photos are not included in the sale.
| Size | A4, A3, A2, 50x70cm |
|---|
