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The Age of Steam Exhibition & The History of Cunard Talk

AntikBar Gallery, Exhibition: 28 April-28 May / Talk: 26 May

 RMSQueenMary_

Our first exhibition at our recently opened gallery in London will showcase a variety of stunning ocean liner and railway posters from around the world, primarily from the 1920-30s; the Golden Age of Travel. 

This was a time when travel was not merely a way of getting somewhere but a destination and an experience in itself. Powered by steam, mighty hand-crafted machines carried passengers for days on their journey to new adventures. The essence of romance and style of this period is truly captured by the elegant poster designs of the era.

Exhibition: 28 April to 28 May. Free entry.
Catalogue: £5 (also available to purchase online). 

The History of Cunard: guest speaker talk by Eric Flounders on Thursday 26 May from 6-7pm. Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance. Please scroll down for more information. Tickets are available to purchase online via our website.

We hope you will be able to make it to this exhibition (scroll down for a taster of what will be on display, including our Google virtual tour that features this exhibition) and talk. Please contact us if you would like to be added to our mailing list for future event notifications.
 

header_logo  AntikBar Gallery, 404 King’s Road, London SW10 0LJ. Open Monday to Friday 11am to 7pm, Saturday 11am to 6pm. Visit our website at www.antikbar.co.uk for more information and to browse all our original vintage posters from around the world – cinema, travel, advertising, sport, war, propaganda. For more updates, follow us on:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AntikBar
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/AntikBar
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AntikBar.co.uk
WordPress: https://antikbarposters.wordpress.com/ 

AntikBar is a Member of the International Vintage Poster Dealers’ Association (IVPDA), the London Art Deco Society (LADS) and The Association of Art and Antiques Dealers (LAPADA).

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Here’s a sneak preview of some of the posters that will be on display with the cover and a few inside pages from our catalogue (click on the images for more information), along with our Google virtual tour that features this exhibition:  

PA1056_1_m  PT0833_1_m  PA1038_1_m

PA0658_1_m   PT1045_1_m

PT0743_1_m   PT0970_1_m   PT0681_1_m

PA0823_1_m   PT0290_1_m   PA0760_1_m

  CatalogueFrontCover.jpg    CatalogueShipsP8
  CatalogueTrainsP35    CatalogueTrainsP46

To flick through our catalogue online, visit:
https://mixam.co.uk/embed/571a2faf27f3bf0493419224
and click here to purchase a printed copy of our exhibition catalogue.

 

[See also our Pinterest board – The Age of Steam – featuring gallery photos taken during our exhibition.]
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The History of Cunard: Talk by Eric Flounders

We are delighted to invite you to a talk on the history of Cunard, which will be given by our guest speaker, Eric Flounders, on Thursday 26 May from 6-7pm at our gallery in London.

Places are limited and tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets cost £10 and include a free copy of our exhibition catalogue and welcome drink. Please contact us or visit us at our gallery to reserve your place at this event.

Eric Flounders
Cunard PR Manager, 1984-2011

Born and brought up in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Eric attended the local state grammar school before going on to obtain a degree in education from Oxford University. He then followed a meandering career which encompassed teaching in a South London comprehensive school, research and speech writing in the House of Commons, and a managerial post with a mainstream tour operator. For 16 years he also found time to be a London Borough councillor, including a stint as Leader of the Council. In 1984 he was appointed Public Relations Manager for Cunard Line, a post he held for 27 years until retirement in 2011. He regularly lectures on the company’s ships about the history of Cunard.

In 2007 he was co-author with Michael Gallagher and Carol Thatcher of “QE2: Forty Years Famous” and in 2014 with Michael Gallagher of “The Triumph of a Great Tradition: The Story of Cunard’s 175 Years.”

QE2: Forty Years Famous
Carol Thatcher with Eric Flounders and Michael Gallagher (2007)

Surely the most famous ship in the world, Cunard's QE2 has captured the headlines for 40 years as she plies her glamorous trade around the globe. The book takes a warts and all look at this fabulous ship. Starting with her revolutionary design and the arguments surrounding her construction and moving on to her time in service with sometimes troubled voyages undergoing engine failure, stowaways, storms, collisions and wartime derring-do. The story includes hosts of celebrities from the sixties to the present day, all of whom have fallen for the charm of this old-fashioned lady. After more than five million nautical miles and 40 years the wrinkles are beginning to show. But while people with taste and a sense of history want to take the most luxurious and leisurely voyages, she will still have a job to do. And nobody does it better than QE2.

The Triumph of a Great Tradition: The Story of Cunard's 175 Years
Eric Flounders, Michael Gallagher (2014)

In 2015 Cunard celebrate their 175th anniversary. Its heritage dates back to 1839 where Sir Samuel Cunard won the first British Government contract to supply a regular mail service across the North Atlantic. Since that date Cunard has had hundreds of ocean liners. Cunard's golden age occurred after the Second World War when the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth entered full commercial service. In the late Fifties Cunard faced the most fierce competitor, the Boeing 707 on the Transatlantic routes. This saw a great decline in the Cunard fleet but amidst the jet revolution Cunard gambled with their future on a new ship, the QE2. With the expanding cruise market in the late Nineties, the company was to see further new-builds, including the QM2. This anniversary book brings together the full story of Cunard and not only follows the history of the company but also many of the celebrities and film stars who have been associated with Cunard. 

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