This poster is both a rarity and an oddity. It also illustrates the challenges one finds sometimes when trying to authenticate rare posters.

Usually, if I am looking to buy a poster I can find a reference for it online from previous sales (for example, the eMovie  and Heritage Auctions databases are both great resources). This detective work enables me to establish a benchmark for fair value and also to check details to look out for (as to whether it is a first or second printing for example). 

But for this French poster for Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons I cannot find any definitive reference anywhere online! The only copy I could find was from an exhaustive expert critical site for the movie. I emailed the writer, who could not remember where he got the photo from but thought as the images on the poster were lifted from the 1940s press-book that it would probably date from then.

The lack of copies floating around obviously indicates it must be very rare…but whether it is valuable is another matter entirely. I cannot find any definitive dates from trying to check on when both the distributor and the printer were active, after web name searches in both English and French. The style of the poster and the artwork makes me hope it might be from the first release in France in 1946 as the Ambersons site author suggests (which would potentially make it very valuable), but its relatively good condition makes me think it may be from somewhat later (my guess is the early 60s) – possibly for a limited screening at a theatre in Paris owned by the distributor – but I do not know for sure.

So if anyone can shed any light on the provenance of this poster I would love to hear from you!