What’s Your Score Tennis Motivational Poster – Charles Mather – C1926

Poster:  What’s Your Score Tennis Motivational Poster – Frank Beatty – C1926

What’s Your Score? Your whole heart in the job gets the results that make you a winner – Everybody Likes The Snappy Worker ”.

Following the devastation and horrors of the first world war, there was a newfound optimism and affluence across much of the world. It’s now defined as the Golden Era in Britain, La Belle Epoque in France and The Roaring 20s in America.

During the 1920s in America, there was an economic upturn. Jobs were now offering better rates of pay, health benefits, reduced hours and paid vacations. In return, the employers required greater productivity and worker loyalty.

It is against this backdrop of peace, economic prosperity, technological progress, scientific and cultural innovations and industrial growth that Seth Seider, a Chicago-based entrepreneur spotted an opportunity to sell factory owners subscriptions to a range of work-related motivational posters. Seider bought a small engraving business for £800 from its owner Charles Mather. He also bought another company the C.J. Howard Company, a small firm specialising in four-page illustrated pamphlets. 

An article on the Jstor.org website titled Managing Motivation in the Vol 44 No 1 Issue of Winter Portfolio written by David A Gray explains “Seider’s creation of the Seth Seiders Syndicate, and its incorporation of Mathers and Howard established it as one of the earliest privately-owned companies in the United States”.

The Mather’s series of Work Incentive posters was the first widespread employer-sponsored program with the goal of corporate success and employee development. The company used several outstanding American artists including Hal Depuy, Willard Frederick Elmes and Frank Beatty. The company made around 350 posters covering a diverse range of subjects including safety, attitude, inspiration, positivity, cleanliness, carelessness and confidence. Despite these posters being produced almost 100 years ago, many of the poster’s motivational messages are still relevant today. The stock market crash in October 1929 put paid to countless businesses including the Seth Seiders Syndicate and no further posters were created.

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 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 poster for just £22.