They remain incredibly rare with under forty known examples in the world. There were believed to be only two survivors until a stash of fifteen appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow in 2012 and six more appeared from another significant estate find of a hoard of wartime posters in 2014. It was almost completely forgotten until one was rediscovered in 2000 by the owner of a bookshop, whereupon the design became the centre of a worldwide marketing phenomenon, appearing on everything from mugs to T-shirts. Thankfully this never happened and, like all paper in the 1940's, stocks were taken from storage, pulped and recycled in the austerity years after the war. This design was printed in secret and intended for distribution only if the Germans landed on British soil. Now, with UK's decision to Brexit, as the poster goes up for auction, the phrase likely has taken on a new relevance again across the pond.This is a very rare and important piece of British history, printed in 1939 when the threat of invasion by the all conquering Nazis was a very real possibility. So why has the poster become so iconic, despite playing almost no role in the war?Īs Owen Hatherley, author of The Ministry of Nostalgia, speculates for The Guardian, the phrase is an example of “austerity nostalgia." He points out that the poster was mass produced in 2008, during the credit crisis, gaining popularity through Britain’s austerity measures and was picked up in the United States during the Great Recession. Only the Manleys' copy and one other were known to exist until 2012, when Antiques Roadshow uncovered a batch of 20, Thorpe says. The millions of "Keep Calm" posters were pulped after 1940 because of a wartime paper shortage. Irving writes the Treasury feared "the population might well resent having this poster crammed down their throats at every turn." Another government minister worried that the poster was "too commonplace to be inspiring" and that "it may even annoy people that we should seem to doubt the steadiness of their nerves." The government had second thoughts about the phrase too. But when the explosions started, the public was prepared for the attacks. Henry Irving, the poster was a more refined version of the original suggestion, “Keep Calm, Don’t Panic.” The government printed 2.5 million "Keep Calm" posters, expecting mass panic when the German bombing campaign began. According to a post on the official UK Government website by Dr. and Germany officially went to war in September, 1939, showing up in railway stations and shop windows. Defend It With All Your Might.” These two posters were distributed widely when the U.K. The other two posters read “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory” and “Freedom Is in Peril. All of them use a distinctive sans serif typeface that may have been drawn by hand on a solid color background, topped by a crown. Thorpe reports that the poster was originally commissioned as one of a series of three propaganda posters designed by the British government in 1939. Over the decade, the image gained notoriety, and eventually became one of the most recognizable memes of the 21st century. They framed the poster and hung it in their shop, and soon it was so popular that the Manleys began selling copies. According to a short film about the poster, it didn’t reach the public eye until 2000, when Stuart and Mary Manley, owners of Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, found it at the bottom of a box of used books they bought at auction. The poster on sale is the one that started the "Keep Calm" craze. There are thousands of t-shirts, mugs, and memes of the now-iconic red-and-white “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster, and even more parodies of the phrase: “ Keep Calm and Kill Zombies,” “ Keep Calm and Eat Bacon,” “ Keep Calm and Buy Shoes,” to name a few.īut it turns out the original poster itself, printed by the U.K.’s Ministry of Information in 1939, is incredibly rare. One of the posters is going on sale at the Manning Fine Arts stand at the Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia, in London, this week, Vanessa Thorpe reports at The Guardian. The price tag is £21,250 or about $28,700.
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