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Please pack parcels very carefully

Poster
September 1957 (made)
Artist/Maker
GPO, General Post Office (issued by)
Eckersley, Tom (OBE) (designer)
Place of origin
London (published)

Poster encouraging the public to carefully wrap parcels. The image, on a red background, features a broken blue and white Staffordshire dog covered with green spots and with a green collar upon which is a lock. Its head is completely separate from the body, and the body is in pieces. It has a teardrop on its face. This ceramic creature sits within a rough green ovoid, representing its wrapping, with a length of white string emerging from either side. At the top of the poster is the slogan, 'Please pack parcels very carefully'. The artist has signed himself, 'Eckersley' in the lower left corner.

Object details

Categories
Prints
Propaganda
Ceramics
Posters
Object type
Poster
TitlePlease pack parcels very carefully (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph
Lithographic Ink
Paper
Lithography
Brief description
'Please pack parcels very carefully', poster depicting a broken ornament, designed by Tom Eckersley for the GPO, United Kingdom (London), 1940s or 50s
Physical description
Poster encouraging the public to carefully wrap parcels. The image, on a red background, features a broken blue and white Staffordshire dog covered with green spots and with a green collar upon which is a lock. Its head is completely separate from the body, and the body is in pieces. It has a teardrop on its face. This ceramic creature sits within a rough green ovoid, representing its wrapping, with a length of white string emerging from either side. At the top of the poster is the slogan, 'Please pack parcels very carefully'. The artist has signed himself, 'Eckersley' in the lower left corner.
Dimensions
  • Height: 73.5cm
  • Width: 91.9cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Please pack parcels very carefully' (Above the image, in white letters)
  • 'GPO' (Lower right corner, in black, the logo of the General Post Office, the letters, with a crown above, within a lozenge-shaped outline)
  • 'ECKERSLEY' (Artist's name, in white, lower left corner)
  • 'J. & Co., Ltd. 51-1517' (Printer's information, lower left corner)
  • 'P.R.D. 877' (Issue number, lower right corner below GPO logo)
Credit line
Gift of the American Friends of the V&A; Gift to the American Friends by Leslie, Judith and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko
Subjects depicted
Communication
Dogs
Figures
Figurines
Wrapping
String
Ceramics
Associated objects
Other number
LS.2004 - Leslie Schreyer Loan Number
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1007-2004

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Record createdApril 27, 2006
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123449/please-pack-parcels-very-carefully-poster-eckersley-tom-obe/
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