Lot 99: ETHEL REED (1876 - ?) MISS TRAUMEREI. 1895.

22x14 inches. Lamson, Wolffe & Co., Boston.
Condition A: minor darkening along edges. Paper.
Reed's biography remains a mystery within the annals of the poster world. From an early career as a book illustrator, she had a meteoric poster design career, in 1895 and 1896, producing some 24 different posters, many of which achieved international acclaim. In May 1896 she went to Europe, designed one more poster, and then completely disappeared from public view. Her posters "favored female figures ?if young girls, they are often knowingly naughty? frequently surrounded by either poppies or lilies, which to the fin-de-siecle mind were fraught with secret meanings." (Kiehl p. 191). The inherent japonisme, composition and color of this book advertisement were such that in its time a critic declared, "artistically refined people are in ecstasies [over this poster.]" (S. C. de Soissons, The Poster, November, 1898). Her work was exclusively for Lamson, Wolfe & Co. Kiehl 235, DFP I 417, Reims 1288, Virginia p. 88, Maitres pl. 99, Maitres 1900 p. 118, Margolin p. 168, Keay p. 18, Gold 80.