[Vintage World War II Poster:] SHE'S A SWELL PLANE - GIVE US MORE! MORE PRODUCTION by [World War II]: [Riggs, Robert (artist)] - 1942

Washington, DC: GPO / War Production Board, 1942. Folio photolithographed broadside (40 x 28"; 102 x 72 cm). Folded, as issued. Short closed tear at lower edge, a few minor wrinkles at edges of folds, minor breaks at apexes of a couple of folds, with a slight trace of tanning along folds, otherwise a near fine, fresh, unused example. A bold image by Riggs promoting increased homefront production, dominated by a large waist-up figure of an American airman raising his goggles with his right hand and gesturing "thumbs up" with his left. Robert Riggs (1896-1970) was in his heyday one of the best- known artists and illustrators in the United States. After studies at the Art Students League and service during World War I, Riggs settled in Philadelphia, his home base for the rest of his life. In the 1930s and '40s he rose to national prominence as an illustrator, lithographer, and commercial artist, producing well-known images of boxers and circuses (two life-long obsessions), and of soldiers during World War II. In 1940, around the peak of his career as an illustrator, his drawings commanded $750- $1500 each, and his name was as well-known in the trade as that of Norman Rockwell. Curiously, at a recent auction of African American printed, manuscript and visual material, an example of this poster was offered, quite tenuously making the assertion that the image is of a Tuskegee airman. On the basis of that assertion, the example offered there realized $2400.