Fur Traders 1926.   Signed faintly in bottom right hand corner of margin ‘Charles Paine’.

This version has Arctic foxes instead of the lone skier.

Salmon Fishing Newfoundland 1926

The Vines of Australia 1926

These three posters by Paine were among the exhibits at the Burlington House Exhibition of Empire Marketing Board posters that was opened by the prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, on 3rd November 1926.   The Exhibition was timed to coincide with the 7th Imperial Conference of Prime Ministers from the Dominions.   The conference was notable for adopting the term ‘Commonwealth’.

The posters were part of the recently-constituted EMB’s publicity campaign to popularise Empire-grown foods and were the work of some of the leading artists of the day including McKnight Kauffer, F.C. Herrick, Charles Pears, Paul Henry, George Sheringham, Gregory Brown, G. Spencer Pryse, E.A. Cox, Charles Dixon, Spenser Wilkinson and Fred Taylor.

The Illustrated London News reproduced six posters from the exhibition including ‘The Suez Canal” by Paine.

‘The Suez Canal’ 1926

‘We reproduce here six of the 25 posters designed for the Empire Marketing Board, and shown at the Exhibition at the Royal Academy opened on November 2 by the Prime Minister. There were also present the Dominion Premiers and other delegates to the Imperial Conference, with Mr. Amery, Secretary for Dominion Affairs, who is Chairman of the Board, and a varied company of well-known people, including Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Mr. Saklavala. These posters from part of the publicity campaign started by the Empire Marketing Board, and will be displayed in London and the principal cities of the United Kingdom early next year. Other notable posters are “The Vines of Australia” by Charles Paine, and “A Country Grocer’s Shop” by Fred Taylor. Among the artists represented are also Mr. Norman Wilkinson and Mr. E. McKnight Kauffer. Some posters are arranged in a triptych frame shown by the Office of Works, with scenes of production in the side panels, and a marketing scene in the centre. One example has side scenes of an Indian rice field and a Ceylon tea plantation, with a central panel of a cargo-steamer in the Channel, and bold letterpress, pointing out that India’s wealth is brought to Britain and British goods return in payment – “When you buy Indian goods you help India and increase employment here. Empire buyers are Empire builders.”

‘Salmon Fishing in Newfoundland’

The Northern Whig and Belfast Post of May 24, 1927 published a collection of posters advertising ‘Industries within the Empire’ including the above by Paine.