'Melbourne' vintage Australian advertising poster, by James Northfield - reproduced under license by Australian Vintage Posters

'Mornington' vintage Australian advertising poster, by James Northfield - reproduced under license by Australian Vintage Posters

Ok so this gem stumbled into my inbox last week and I must admit I have shuffled a few things around to get it up in time for potential Christmas shopping! I just thought these brilliant nostalgic prints would make such an excellent gift, particularly for blokes, who are always tricky to buy for.

Australian Vintage Posters is the somewhat accidental creation of Melbourne-based Andrew McUtchen, who, amongst other things, happens to be the Associate Ed of GQ Magazine! After designing his own wedding invitation based on an Australian vintage poster by Percy Trompf, Andrew developed a fascination for Australian vintage posters, and began searching for more. 'We loved the invite so much that we went looking for more Australian vintage posters to decorate our house with. It took ages to find any, and the ones we found were buried with the usual European posters - Cinzano, Campari etc' recalls Andrew.

Andrew's wedding invitation, based on an Australian vintage poster by Percy Trompf.

Frustrated by the scarcity of original Australian vintage posters, eventually Andrew approached a couple of the great Australian poster artists' trusts, like the James Northfield Heritage Art Trust, and asked for a license to reprint his and others' work. After about six months of emails back and forth, they said yes! 'Now I am the proud founder of Australian Vintage Posters, which will hopefully expand to become an authoritative source of Australian vintage poster art reproductions' says Andrew.

Whilst his prints aren't originals, Andrew has a clear affection for the artists whose work he has discovered, and is very keen to raise awareness of the great artists who created these iconic Australian images, such as James Northfield, Percy Trompf and Douglas Annand. 'I absolutely love them - and I also think they're curiously unknown' says Andrew. 'The most common response to the business has been - I didn't know Australia had vintage posters'.

Andrew has just launched his online shop just this week! He has an appointment only space in the CBD, and his prints can also be found at Melbournalia in Victoria Market. His posters are printed in Melbourne by specialist printer Roger Saddington of Art Strategies, and are priced starting from $159.00.

Australian Vintage Posters

Studio 611, Nicholas Building

37 Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000

(Gallery open by appointment)

'Great Barrier Reef' vintage Australian advertising poster, by James Northfield - reproduced under license by Australian Vintage Posters