Customer Reviews

Ocean Liner Postcards in Marine Art 1900-1945

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book could have been written in 1925. It is a model of its kind: well-organized, quite literate, and with very valuable details, appendices, and a good index. There are lists of publishers, timelines, and most important, Artists -- and that list indexes the particular card(s) in the text. Further, in this little book there is a capsule history of passenger shipping from 1837 to 1950 --and it is a far better-written, more lucid and more informative narrative than most of what passes for history these days in larger size picture-books. If you read this book you will have taken a giant step toward being a serious collector.

That said, there are drawbacks as well as virtues in this little book's Britishness. Most of all, it concentrates almost entirely on British shipping, with perfunctory nods to the Germans (lightly represented), the French (hardly represented at all), or the (completely ignored) Dutch, Swedish, Italians, and Americans. And despite the virtuosity of the artists represented there is a certain sameness about the examples.

That really didn't bother me. This is a beautiful little book about a wonderful little subject. If it takes no note of the sleeker, more stylized Art Nouveau or Deco styles popular on "the Continent," it does give a very good exposition of the realistic yet painterly artists, many of whom (Wyllie, Dixon and Shoesmith for example) were superb draftsmen as well as painters --talents sorely needed, then and now.

I only hope Mr. Wall will tackle the other countries in another volume -- and I will rush to buy it.

August `99 OCEAN LINER POSTCARDS IN MARINE ART 1900-1945 is a very attractive, nicely produced little handbook (the first of its kind) aimed chiefly at ocean-liner buffs, for whom it will surely be a must-buy. The book may also be of interest to those who recall the age of ocean liners and perhaps even sailed on them. The reproductions of more than 200 color post cards of passenger ships are surprisingly good, as are many of the paintings themselves. For some reason, artists - even marine artists - often have difficulty in representing ships in a way that is anatomically accurate, as it were: the perspective may be off, the stacks too high, the hulls to large and looming. Not to worry: most of the paintings commissioned for post cards - which after all were marketing vehicles - are imbued with an irresistible romantic aura that overcomes all defects. Regrettably, the information about the ships depicted in this nifty book is quite sketchy and the text, which presents short histories of the lines involved, is rather dry.

I echo the opinions of the first reviewer`s comments if not his star rating.As a British collector of Liner postcards I probably am biased towards it`s "Britishness" but it is unquestionably the best [and admittedly the only]book on this subject available.Look,love Liners- like lots!

The world of ocean liner postcards is a fascinating one, filled with exquisite exterior and interior views of long-gone ships. But this volume misses most of the best. Where are the gorgeous chromolithographed Hamburg-America cards, whose detail is astonishing and artistry is breathtaking. Has Wall never seen one? Wall has a single North German Lloyd card, out of hundreds of beautiful examples I've seen. Why? Where are the lovely Red Star cards, some so beautiful they've been turned into posters and reproduced and are for sale even now. Where are the delicate Japanese cards, so different from their European counterparts? Has Wall never seen them? Apparently not. The cards reproduced here are almost entirely British, as if only British steam ships mattered--and yet these are the most common cards available today and among the least distinguished. Furthermore, a fair number of Wall's examples are in such poor condition that no collector would have them in his or her collection. Worse yet, Wall's book is filled with small inaccuracies. Normandie cards, he says, are rare--and yet I have seen at least 200. For the person interested in ocean liner postcards--and there is good reason to be interested, both for artistic and historical reasons--this book is a shame. It could have been remarkable, but it was evidently put together by someone who has very little knowledge or experience of these miniature artworks. By the way, at one time I had 7500 different ocean liner postcards in my collection, so I think my opinion has considerable validity. I bought this book hoping to show my wife what the best ocean liner postcards were like, what my collection was like when I owned it. I wasted my money. Instead of buying this book, spend you money at a postcard show. If it's a good one, you'll find a number of cards better than any in this book.