New Mason Railway Poster
Since the publication of the catalogue raisonne of all Frank Mason's known railway poster just one previously unrecorded poster has come to light
Norfolk Coast has been allocated No 108a in this catalogue and dates to c. 1932. It is signed FHM lower left
[ also see below an update on the Mablethorpe & Sutton on Sea poster, No 72 in this catalogue raisonne]
News and discoveries
Frank Mason and the Navy League
The oil and watercolour paintings that Frank Mason painted for the Navy League are amongst his finest naval pictures.
Published in full colour in the Navy Magazine, the WW2 naval scenes were commissioned as moral boosting images for the British public.
A superb example with the title If Hitler Comes painted in 1940 was recently acquired from an American auction by the Mitchell Collection. It featured in the exhibition of Mason’s naval pictures at Ushaw College, Durham. and an exhibition of Mason's works at Beverley Art Gallery in 2019. Full details - see the Exhibitions page on this website.
Wind in the Offing - watercolour - Exhibited Sporting Gallery 1936, No 124
A fine group of works by Mason were sold at Chiswick Auctions on 22nd March 2016, lots 66-75. They all seem to have been in the possession of Mason's commercial agent , A.E. Johnson of the Sporting Gallery.
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'A Delectable Sight'
A superb Mason oil painting auctioned recently has been acquired by the Mitchell Collection.
Although entitled "Outward Bound" at the auction, this picture in fact is entitled Churchill's Return: An Historic Crossing and illustrates an actual naval incident.
Winston Churchill was desperate to see a real live convoy at sea, and on 13 August 1941 he left Placentia Bay, Newfoundland having signed the Atlantic Agreement with President Roosevelt.
He was on board HMS PRINCE OF WALES. with her six escorts and they caught up with convoy HX 143, which had sailed from Halifax on 5 August 1941.
Churchill persuaded the Captain of PRINCE OF WALES to take his fleet through the middle of this convoy. Churchill described what followed as a 'delectable sight', , whilst the PRINCE OF WALES is flying the signal 'Good Voyage, Churchill' [PYU, CHURCHILL]
Churchill enjoyed the experience so much, that he had Captain Leach reverse course and repeated the manoeuvre a second time!
A published colour print came to light and gave us the correct title "An Historic Crossing" [many thanks to David Noon for bringing this to our attention]
A superb watercolour of the Herring Fleet Scarboro has been acquired by the Mitchell Collection
It featured in the 2019 exhibition at Beverley Art Gallery, East Yorkshire
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The BBC have twice featured Mason posters .The most recent was on Great Britiah Railway Journeys on BBC 2 , repeated on 20/02/2018 when Michael Portillo spoke to Edward Yardley about his East Coast route railway posters
A while ago their News website has featured a tremendous article on Mason's railway poster work for the LNER.
This Quad Royal poster of The Coronation still holds the record for the most expensive poster by Mason sold at auction
As with the Skegness poster above, a new colour image of Mason's other Skegness poster has kindly been send to us, thanks to the private collector. This 1949 BR DR poster is No 179 in the catalogue raisonne.
Finally , does anyone have an image of the full poster with letterpress of this Mablethorpe & Sutton on Sea poster, No 72 in the catalogue raisonne . It is known only from the artwork image shown here