advent calendar 2021

Gift of the Day: Particularly Special Vintage Posters

Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photo: Retailer

Welcome to Curbed’s Advent-calendar gift guide. For each of the 25 weekdays before Christmas, we will be doling out, one by one, the gifts recommended by dozens of design bigwigs with extremely good taste. So keep checking in daily for new drops.

The Ross Art Group has a truly massive selection of rare vintage posters — among them, a 1997 Andy Warhol one for Chanel No. 5, a series of ’70s Porsche racing posters, and a 1998 Apple “Think Different” ad featuring Martha Graham. The site is where interior designer Liz Caan finds herself shopping annually for gifts for her friends and family members — and especially the young adults, teens, and babies in her life. “It’s an easy way to help them start their art collection young,” she says. A few years ago, Caan gifted this 1983 Davis Cup poster to her tennis-loving older son.

She particularly likes the old Air France designs, which are “always colorful and beautiful,” like this 1959 Air France map, which she would put in an office, playroom, or project room. Or this more affordable, Boston-themed American Airlines option designed in 1953, which Liz could imagine in a teen’s bedroom.

Caan tends to get vintage posters framed before gifting them, opting for preservation plexiglass and “a simple wooden frame to complement the poster but not detract” from the design.

Gift of the Day: Particularly Special Vintage Posters