Image via Anderson & Garland
Everyone. We’re going to need you to not panic.
There’s a new record auction price for rare “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters.
A complete set of three different sized versions of the iconic WWII posters – the only trio known to exist – recently fetched £9,000 ($11,620) on July 4 at the Anderson & Garland Auctioneers in Newcastle, United Kingdom.
The collection was previously owned by a Suffolk police officer who acquired them toward the end of the war and kept them in excellent condition.
Of the three posters on the auction block, the small, mid-sized and large versions each sold for £2,210 ($2,853), £3,250 ($4,196) and £3,640 ($4,700), respectively.
The fact of the matter is, if you saw one of these signs in public, collecting posters was likely one of the last things on your mind.
The posters were part of a series of civic announcements created by England’s Ministry of Information around 1939 at the onset of WWII.
Plenty of these motivational posters from the ministry were commonplace during this era as messages such as “Freedom is in Peril. Defend it with all your might” and “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring us Victory” were aimed to build public confidence.
But the “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters were thought to be demeaning and dour and all together not very popular. In fact, the posters were meant to be displayed only in case of a dire national emergency, such as a Nazi Germany invasion.
They were so unpopular that the government eventually “pulped” 2.5 million of the posters, which has only added to their rarity.
“The three “Keep Calm” posters, which to the best of our knowledge have never before appeared as a complete set at auction, encapsulate a pivotal moment in British history and stand as an inspiring message from the past,” Anderson & Garland director Fred Wyrley-Birch said via the A&G website. “We are so pleased to have been able to sell these for well above their top estimates.”
Do you think the winner of the auction heeded the Keep Calm poster’s advice as the clock wound down on their winning bid?
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