Orient Line : Egypt – Colombo – Australia : poster by Dudley Hardy : advert in “Travel Notes” : booklet issued by the Southern Railway of England : 1923

mikeyashworth posted a photo:

A poster issued by the Orient Line steamship company seen in a small booklet/folder called “Travel Notes” issued by the Southern Railway to assist travellers to the Continent. The folder includes a pocket for travel documents as well as many pages of adverts.

The folder must have been issued just after the 1923 Grouping as although the main text refers to the Southern Railway, elsewhere it appears as the either still the South Eastern & Chatham Railway or the Southern Railway (S. E. & C. Section) as well as including adverts such as this for the Caledonian that would have been, by the time of printing, part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway.

The Orient Steam Navigation Company had a long pedigree that stretched back to 1797 but the name ‘Orient Line’ was not associated with the company until 1866. The company prospered, moving into steamships, and by the early 20th Century they had a working relationship with the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company – P & O – with regards o fast mail saling to and from Australia. In 1919 P & O acquired a 51% interest in the line, the other 49% being taken up by the company of Anderson, Green as seen here and they effectively managed the Line.

The poster seen here must have been about a decade old when it was reproduced and it came from the studio of artist and poster designer Dudley Hardy (1867 – 1922). Hardy was noted as being one of the artists responsible for the renaissance of British poster art in the years prior to World War One. The lettering is particularly of the period.