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Please pack parcels very carefully

Poster
ca.1940s-1950s (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 dark-blue background, features a broken blue and white ceramic horse covered with green spots. Its body is in pieces, demarked by jagged edges, and a front and back leg are missing, as is the top of its head. It has a teardrop on its face, falling from its bright-green eye. This ceramic creature sits within a pink ovoid-shaped area, 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 right 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 dark-blue background, features a broken blue and white ceramic horse covered with green spots. Its body is in pieces, demarked by jagged edges, and a front and back leg are missing, as is the top of its head. It has a teardrop on its face, falling from its bright-green eye. This ceramic creature sits within a pink ovoid-shaped area, 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 right corner.
Dimensions
  • Height: 73.6cm
  • Width: 92cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Please pack parcels very carefully' (Above the image, in white letters)
  • 'GPO' (Lower left corner, in white, the logo of the General Post Office, the letters, with a crown above, within a lozenge-shaped outline)
  • 'ECKERSLEY' (Artist's name and date, in black in the lower right corner)
  • 'C.P. LTD. 51-1467' (Printer's information, lower right corner)
  • 'PRD888' (Issue number, lower left 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
Horses
Figures
Figurines
Wrapping
String
Ceramics
Associated objects
Other number
LS.2005 - Leslie Schreyer Loan Number
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1008-2004

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Record createdApril 28, 2006
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123462/please-pack-parcels-very-carefully-poster-eckersley-tom-obe/
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