I have just returned from the Ephemera Society’s Summer Fair in Bloomsbury with a box of beautiful finds. This is my favourite. It’s a gorgeous poster for the 98th Annual Show of The Ditchling Horticultural Society. The Society still exists and in a happy coincidence is this year celebrating their 200th show. This is a very interesting poster. It was undoubtedly printed in Ditchling and given the date of 1920 there is a very good chance that the notorious Eric Gill had a hand in it. The famous St. Dominic’s Press was established just a year later by Philip Hagreen and many other notable designers were associated with the village at this time. I love the distinctive typeface but also that colourful naive print of the basket of flowers. The event itself sounds charming too. There were ‘cocoanut’ shies, a Slow Bike Race and a Ladies’ Egg and Spoon Race. I would love to have been there – and I’d love to hear more about this poster too. It measures 7 1/2 inches by 18 inches and is printed on Ingres Cover-Fabriano paper.
Ditchling, 1920. First edition.
