Large Vintage Posters

Are you in search of a large piece of wall art with lots of color to spruce up your home decor? Vintage travel posters and vintage advertising posters are full of color and they can really make a statement. An art print can also serve as a memento of places you have been or want to go. I really love classic vintage posters from Italy and France, because I love to go there.

You probably recognize some of the famous artists like Leonetto Cappiello in the posters below. These artists were famous for their bright colors.

Posters can be a good way to get a large piece of art without spending a lot of money. There are lots of vintage posters about food and wine, travel, and fashion. The authentic, original vintage posters that aren’t reproductions can be very expensive, but the prints have the same vintage design and look just as authentic.

Favorite Places to Find Vintage Posters

1.) The Vintage Poster

The place with the largest selection of real, original artwork (actually old posters and not reproductions) is The Vintage Poster. This store has an amazing selection and more information about artists and how to preserve the posters than any other place.

Below are two of my favorites. Prices can vary depending on the size from $50 to thousands each. The Gruau poster below was $198 for a 15.5″ x 26″ serigraph.

The posters at the Vintage Poster are Serigraphs, which means they are silk screenings. A serigraph is of higher quality than a lithograph and the price reflects that. The original prints are acid free archival linen backed.

2.) Poster Passion

The Vintage Poster shop also has a reproduction poster site called Posterpassion.com. Here you can find the same types of posters, but reproductions. In fact, it’s the same owner as the Vintage Poster, but here they post their non-original reproductions and the price points are lower.

As a side note, the margarine original poster is $6900.

3.) Great Big Canvas

Despite the name of this site, it is possible to get prints instead of large canvas art at Great Big Canvas. I prefer framed art, but if you are looking for something light and easy to hang, you could choose canvas prints instead.

The prices at Great Big Canvas are low and because the art is printed on demand you can choose the size you want. Many of the prints are only $24.99.

4.) Etsy

Etsy is one of my favorite places to buy things like art. The one thing you have to watch for is seller reviews. Unlike Amazon, when you review a product, it’s really a review of the seller and not the actual product. Therefore, never buy from a seller who has less than four stars.

For example, Archiveprintco has five stars. This seller has two sizes and you can buy the prints framed or unframed. In addition to vintage posters, they also have framed patents and old newspapers.

5.) Ebay

Ebay is a fun place to look but the prices are high relative to other places to find authentic posters. The best way to find a poster on Ebay is to be very specific with your search. For example, search “Italian vintage posters”.

You have to be careful on Ebay to check the size. Even though it says poster the art could be small.

Framing Large Art On a Budget

While I love the look of large posters, the cost of a frame can be more than the artwork itself.

Part of what drives up the cost of framing is shipping. I recommend framing locally if it’s possible to avoid the premium.

If you can’t find a local framing option I like these budget options for framing large art. For reference, the poster I bought was 15.5″x 26″.

Framebridge has a service where you can send in art and they will frame it and send it back. The cost to frame the poster with a mat is $179.

Frameiteasy will send you a custom frame to your specifications. You can choose the mat (or mats), and regular or non-glare acrylic. The cost for a 1″ mat and black wood frame is $70.47.

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Have you purchased any vintage posters? Send me a photo, I’d love to see it.