WW2 Poster Restoration: The Before and After Nobody Sees
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The Dig On for Victory in my hallway cost £15. I bought it from a junk shop in Olney when I was thirteen, with money earned washing cars. It is a cheap reproduction, the paper sags in its frame, and the colours were never quite right.
I now sell restored poster reproductions. The old one is still there.
It was Peter Fraser’s gardener that started all this, so the designs in the comparison above have a particular hold on me. I already know what it is to want that picture on a wall. Looking at an image covered in stains, pencil marks or blue paint, I can see the poster waiting underneath.
The blue paint is especially irritating. Somebody splashed it across a poster about growing vegetables, which seems an unnecessarily hostile response to a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
The three images have acquired different kinds of damage. One has official annotations, another has paint splatters, and the borders carry the discolouration and spotting that old paper collects. Yet the designs remain remarkably assured. The figures have purpose; the lettering still knows exactly how to get your attention. These were posters asking ordinary people to contribute to an extraordinary effort, and the confidence of that appeal survives.
Getting it back into view takes rather more work than the finished print suggests.
Where the hours go
We start with a high quality scan. From there, each poster gets individual attention. We remove stains and handling marks, repair creases and bring the colour back into balance. We work through the lettering and illustration in detail, preserving the texture of the printing, the artist’s signature and the small printer’s details at the foot of the sheet.
There is a good deal contained in that last sentence. A fold can leave a pale line across several colours. Removing it means making the repair sit within each part of the picture. A cleaned area needs to retain the texture around it, so that your eye passes over the repair and carries on looking at the design. The small lettering receives the same care as the main illustration. It is all part of the finished image.
The printer’s imprint is a detail I particularly like. It gives a name to another firm involved in making the poster, often in a line so small that it is easy to miss. The artist’s signature does something similar: it returns a person to an image that has become familiar enough to feel as though it has always existed.
Those details matter in a reproduction. They make it possible to spend time with the poster and keep finding things in it. A picture that first catches you with its colour can turn out to have a great deal more going on.
An unexpected occupational hazard
Old Sellotape has, on different occasions, involved a hair dryer or lighter fluid. I was recently refused a sale of lighter fluid because they thought I was a solvent abuser. I was trying to remove tape residue from a poster. That was an occupational hazard I had not anticipated.
We have even restored posters damaged by dog bites. The dog really did eat the poster. There is no more elegant version of that story.
A note about original posters: these stories are not treatment instructions. Heat and solvents can damage paper and inks, and heat must never be used near flammable solvents. A qualified paper conservator can assess a poster and advise on treatment.
Three days with Keep Mum
The restoration of Keep Mum, She’s Not So Dumb took three days, before a single print was made.
Harold Forster’s woman in the white evening dress looks wonderfully untroubled by this. Three servicemen are gathered around her, entirely absorbed. She looks out at the viewer. Of everyone in the picture, she appears to have the best idea of what is going on.
Forster painted the scene with a warmth and looseness that makes an official warning look rather like an invitation to a party. That is part of its appeal, and it gives the restoration something particular to preserve. The tonal changes, the brushwork and the atmosphere belong to the image as much as the slogan does.
That is why each poster needs to be considered on its own terms. Forster’s painted scene asks for a different sort of attention from a design built around flat colour and bold lettering. In both, the work is to bring the picture back into focus while keeping the qualities that made somebody stop and look at it in the first place.
Three days on one image gives you a fairly accurate idea of the level of attachment involved. By the time it reaches the product page, the repairs have become part of the picture. The time spent on them is much harder to see.
The paper and pigment inks are the last stage of a process that has already demanded a considerable amount of care. The before and after comparison is a useful way of showing some of that work. What I hope you notice first in the finished version is the poster itself.
Back to the hallway
The version of Dig On for Victory in the collection has a clean paper edge and a legible Peter Fraser signature. It has had the attention that my old copy never received.
Mine has something else going for it. I chose it at thirteen, when £15 represented a considerable amount of car washing. Long before there was a business, there was that gardener on my wall, and the feeling that a room was better for having him in it.
I have never replaced it. For now, the paper can go on sagging.
Frequently asked questions
What is digital poster restoration?
It is the work of preparing a historical image for a new print. Marks and damage are repaired, colour is brought into balance, and the lettering, illustration and original printing details receive close attention. Digital restoration works on the image used for reproduction, separately from any treatment of the physical paper.
Are these original WW2 posters?
They are digitally restored reproductions, printed today. Each product is described as a reproduction, with information about the historical design.
What paper and inks are used?
The reproductions are printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper with pigment inks, giving the image a matte finish.
How should I care for a vintage poster reproduction?
Frame it carefully and keep it away from direct sunlight and damp. A framer can advise on suitable mounting and glazing.
