Rare poster heads cast of film images

HULL FILM BUFF IS SELLING THE MEMORABILIA

- By DEBORAH HALL

A COLLECTION of some of the most iconic 1970s film posters, including a famous 1977 Star Wars image by one of Britain's greatest cinema illustrators, goes up for auction in East Yorkshire later this month.

Tom Chantrell's Star Wars artwork launched the film's global franchise. His image of actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford's characters brandishing blaster guns, while behind them looms Darth Vader holding a lightsaber, is instantly recognisable, and a collector's item.

The estimate on it is £800 to £1,000 when it goes under the hammer at Newbald Village Hall, on Saturday, October 18.

It is also the rarer of the two versions of Chantrell's poster that will be sold at the Hawleys Antiques and Fine Art Auction.

It went out to a limited number of cinemas before the film's Oscar nominations were announced shortly after its launch in the UK - text to this effect was then added to a second poster, which was more widely issued.

Also in the collection is American artist Robert McCall's poster design for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, estimate £500 to £800). McCall was best known for his space artworks which also documented the NASA space programme for more than 35 years.