Starley Bros Psycho Cycles

Original antique advertising poster for Starley Bro's Psycho Cycles Coventry (St John's Works) London (21 Holborn Viaduct) Paris (12 Avenue de la Grande Armee) St Petersburg VO 5th Line No 4 Starley Bros & Westwood Manufacturing Company Limited. Great artwork featuring a black and white illustration of an elegant lady wearing fashionable clothing, a hat and gloves, riding a shiny new bicycle on a country road towards the viewer with trees and a wooden fence in the background, the title text in handwriting style letters on the ground by the bike and in bold red letters above and below. Established in 1869 by the English inventor James Starley (1830-1881), known as father of the bicycle industry, the pioneering Starley Brothers company manufactured bicycles and sewing machines; the Psycho Cycles safety bicycle model was the first mass produced bike for ladies designed in 1888 with a step-through frame for a lady cyclist wearing a long skirt to ride it easily and more safely in comfort; the name was inspired by Psycho Automaton (1874), the mechanical card playing puppet created by the stage magician, illusionist and inventor John Nevil Maskelyne (1839-1917) with John Algernon Clarke. Designed and printed by Moore, Coventry. Large size. Fair condition, restored tears, restored paper losses, restored folds, restored creasing, staining, foxing, backed on linen.