On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories. Motor Manufacturing

Poster
1928 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Empire Marketing Board (1928-1933) was established to promote the products of the British Empire within the United Kingdom. The products were chiefly foodstuffs, but they included some industrial commodities too. The EMB was a major patron of graphic designers and film-makers. The design and content of the posters was self-consciously superior to those of advertisements. The EMB commissioned many well-known artists, including Edward Mcknight Kauffer and Gerald Spencer Pryse. Artists were asked to re-submit work that failed to display sufficient technical accuracy or which lapsed into fantasy. Clive Gardiner's strikingly modernist design was issued as part of a series of posters stressing the economic interdependence of Britain and its overseas Empire.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleEmpire Buying Makes Busy Factories. Motor Manufacturing (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph
Brief description
One of a six part colour lithograph poster entitled 'Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories'. Designed by Clive Gardiner. Issued by the Empire Marketing Board. Great Britain. 1928.
Physical description
Landscape format colour lithograph poster featuring a Cubistic/semi-realist, semi-abstract design in predominantly reds, greys and ochre, of an industrial interior. In the foreground, three male figures (more or less equally spaced from left of centre to far right of the image) appear to be engaged in some manufacturing process.
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 1005mm
  • Sheet width: 1515mm
Dimensions taken from: Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1: 116.2 X 584.2 cm (overall size)
Styles
Production typeMass produced
Marks and inscriptions
  • ......The Empire Marketing Board [partially obliterated] (Distributor's identification; left of bottom margin; lithography)
  • Printed for HM Stationery Office by Waterlow & Sons Ltd. London, Dunstable & Watford. (Maker's identification; right of bottom margin; lithography)
  • Clive Gardiner (Signature; within the image in lower left corner; lithography)
Gallery label
(2021)
Man and machine

The Empire Marketing Board (EMB) commissioned this poster in the late 1920s to promote industrially-produced goods from countries that formed part of the British empire. The short-lived EMB was established in an effort to boost trade between Britain and the countries it had colonised to sustain the empire. Portraying the factory as an industrious place of work, this dramatic image champions the partnership between man and machine.

Poster celebrating automation
‘Motor Manufacturing’, 1928
Designed by Clive Gardiner
Issued by the Empire Marketing Board, UK
Colour lithograph
Given by the Empire Marketing Board
Museum no. E.443:1-1932

The object sits in the 'Automation and Labour' section of the Design 1900-Now gallery opened in June 2021.
Credit line
Given by the Empire Marketing Board
Production
One of a six part poster entitled 'Empire Buying Makes Busy Factories'.

Reason For Production: Commission
Subjects depicted
Summary
The Empire Marketing Board (1928-1933) was established to promote the products of the British Empire within the United Kingdom. The products were chiefly foodstuffs, but they included some industrial commodities too. The EMB was a major patron of graphic designers and film-makers. The design and content of the posters was self-consciously superior to those of advertisements. The EMB commissioned many well-known artists, including Edward Mcknight Kauffer and Gerald Spencer Pryse. Artists were asked to re-submit work that failed to display sufficient technical accuracy or which lapsed into fantasy. Clive Gardiner's strikingly modernist design was issued as part of a series of posters stressing the economic interdependence of Britain and its overseas Empire.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
  • Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1932. London: HMSO, 1933
Collection
Accession number
E.443:1-1932

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Record createdMarch 8, 2003
Record URL
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