A perfect introduction to poster collecting, this is the cream of poster art: more than 200 of the world's best classic designs from the golden era of posters (the 1890s to about WWI), all reproduced in color and annotated in great detail. The neophyte can find out the what, who, where and why of posters; the knowledgeable collector will marvel at the depth and scope of this particular collection; any reader who likes art can uncover new pleasures in this rich but comparatively little explored field. The posters come from the collection of the Wine Spectator, part of M. Shanken Communications, Inc.; it was Marvin R. Shanken, founder and president, who personally assembled this poster treasure, already one of the best in the world. His publications deal primarily with wine and spirits; one of them, The Wine Spectator, is the largest selling publication of its kind in the world. Among his other publications are Impact, Impact International, Market Watch, and Food Arts. The only way his bias shows is that the wine and liquor posters are provided with interesting background on the companies involved; but the overall criterion for the choices is quality, and posters on all imaginable subjects are included. Both the text and the pictures tell a great deal about the nostalgically evoked time, a century ago, which was called "la belle epoque," the era of Toulouse-Lautrec, Sarah Bernhardt, art nouveau, Victorian prudery alongside the naughty cancan: the images in these posters recreate it for us in terms of popular culture of the time, amusingly, entertainingly, and informatively. Among the most memorable impressions are Toulouse-Lautrec's immortal Moulin Rouge, Mucha's Gismonda, Chéret's Loie Fuller, two delectably impudent posters for the humor magazine "Frou-Frou," plus the works of Ibels, Steinlen, Pal, Lobel, Villon--and some 50 designs by Cappiello, the founder of the modern poster style. -- Inside jacket flap.