1917 James Flagg Uncle Sam WW1 “I Want You” Onsite Recruitment 30”x40” Poster For Sale

1917 James Flagg Uncle Sam WW1 “I Want You” Onsite Recruitment 30”x40” Poster
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1917 James Flagg Uncle Sam WW1 “I Want You” Onsite Recruitment 30”x40” Poster:
$11082.00

1917 James Flagg Uncle Sam WW1 “I Want You” Onsite Recruitment30”x40” Poster

James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was anAmerican artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine artpainting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters. Hismost recognizable piece is his WW1 Uncle Sam “I Want You For US Army”. Theposter depicted Uncle Sam pointing directly at the viewer and was inspired by aBritish recruitment poster showing Lord Kitchener in a similar pose. Over fourmillion copies of the poster were printed during World War 1. James Flagg usedhis own face as the model for Uncle Sam, and added age and a white goatee foreffect.

In the author’s opinion, this is the finest and mosthistoric example to hit the market. Neatly written on the front bottom inperiod grease pencil is “38 Front Street”. This is significant as this was theaddress of the recruitment center where the cities young men were directed togo after reading the “I Want You” message printed on the poster. This is theonly example with a call to action where the new owner is guaranteed the posterwas an actual recruitment poster and not a left over from the production run.

To verify its authenticity and separate it from reproductionor later issues, printed on the bottom center is “Leslie-Judge Co., 1917”. Thisprint mark must be present for an original issue.

The poster has been professionally linen backed with onlythe slightest of color restoration. The poster was part of a 50+ pluscollection and has never been offered publicly for sale. Recent sales prices ofthis poster are:

All of the above published prices are verified as havingsold at a nationally recognized sale house. None of those examples werefound with the address of a recruitment center and none of those examples couldbe documented to have been actually used as a recruitment poster.

Our asking price of $11,082 is reflective of the aggregateaverage of the current market value without taking into effect the historicnature of the “38 Front Street” hand written period recruitment center notation.It would be quite reasonable to price this poster at $15,000+ due to itsdocumented recruitment usage. Fine overall condition on line back. LOA fromTroy R. Kinunen, MEARS

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