I always write about how much I love what I do – primarily because it affords me the opportunity to be surrounded by beautiful posters and prints all day long. The gallery is not only physically beautiful (with abundant light and great floor-to-ceiling windows),but because of our fabulous magnet walls (the walls are actually sheet metal – painted – which permits us to hang even the most enormous posters with rare earth magnets) we can change our interior design themes on an almost daily basis. Getting up the ladder is another matter, but I digress….

But aside from the posters, the other aspect of my work that I truly enjoy is the people we meet on a daily basis. Kristina and I have developed a particular fondness for older gentlemen – the kind who are polite, refined, and knowledgeable. The type of man who still remembers how to open a door for a lady, and who, if he says he will research a particular poster, most likely will do just that and send a detailed email with references and suggestions and information and kindness all rolled into one. (Joe, I’m talking about you!)

We’ve had this poster in the gallery for a while, and although I understood its general message (something having to do with World War One and fighter planes, like these, I was having a hard time identifying the gentleman on the bottom left of the image.

Enter Joe:

 Hello Karen,

As promised, I am getting back to you about the ‘Goliath – Farman’ poster by Georges Villa. From my research, I believe that it has to be a peacetime poster, no earlier than late 1918. The plane was designed and launched in the last year of WW I and, as I understand, did not see combat. If you look at the poster, there is no battles, no war happening and the plane, rather than dropping bombs is sailing over an area that it’s uniting. I think the strings mean the Goliath is linking the countries represented by the three politicians. 

LATER TODAY

Well, as it turns out, I had to go out and upon returning hit google one more time. The Navtech Aviation Poster Collection is the site that solves it all: posters.navtech.aero

 “This illustration by George Villa depicts Henry and Maurice Farman, the two founders of the Farman-Goliath airlines, and the prime minister of France, George Clemenceau. The snake under Clemenceau’s left foot is a reference to Germany under the airplane restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. Clemenceau’s stands on the snake, symbolizing the post-World War I restriction put on the German airlines . The Farman brothers built their first airplane in 1907. Soon after World War I, TheFarman brothers built the Farman-Goliath twelve passenger, twin engine commercial transport version of a bomber aircraft. In 1919, the F.60 Farman-Goliath airplane, built by Henry and Maurice Farman, made the first passenger flight from Paris to London, carrying 11 military personnel.

 George Clemeceau, the prime minister of France from 1917-1920, reconciled the interests of France, Great Britain and the U.S. by insisting on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The treaty, signed in the Hall of Mirrors in the Versailles Palace, stipulated that the German government could not produce large passenger airplanes”

We love the fact that other folks can get just as excited posters as we do. And we really
appreciate when they take the time to fill us in one stuff we know nothing about …
THANKS JOE!!