About Us
Sticky Fingers Film Art is a venture by two antique dealers - Ilya Emerson of Emerson Antiques and Louis Walpole of LJW Antiques. Ilya, an unquestionable film buff and long term film poster collector. Louis, a film lover (though nowhere near as nerdy as Ilya) and a dealer in / lover of all forms of vintage advertising, graphic design and ephemera…
A few years ago the two were on a buying trip on the Continent, wiling away the miles with a little film quiz, which would generally involve some controversial question like - “What was Kubrick’s best film?” - obviously there’s no simple answer to this but as the merits of Kubrick's different titles were being debated Ilya pointed out that he owned an original 2001: A Space Odyssey one sheet film poster.
“Ah” said Louis, “the scene of the spaceship in orbit?”.
“No, no” replied Ilya “I’ve got the re-release with the Space Child, much cooler. Much rarer”.
This got the two into a whole new discussion about film posters / poster design that covered everything from beautiful simplicity of the advance posters to the wonderful creativity of the Polish interpretations from the ‘80s.
Not long after this trip, Louis found a collection of film posters coming up for sale in auction and the two went in together on the purchase, this soon spiralled into an alarmingly large stockpile of original film posters and a decent enough turnover that the side venture had to get registered as a proper business and now the pair are working on this site, an online presence to help make the stock more widely available and easy to purchase.
Everything on this site is original. Generally these are posters that would have been released as part of the film’s marketing pack for display in the foyers of cinemas. A few of the posters will be from a film’s re-release or from a film’s later release in a foreign country, but this will always be stated. Together Ilya and Louis have decades of collective knowledge on the subject and have handled hundreds, if not thousands, of posters which helps them to discern the originals from later copies. As well as making sure everything we offer is genuine, we make sure that it’s in good, original condition. That’s not to say perfect - half the charm of these pieces is that they’ve lived a life (been pinned to the walls of a teenagers bedroom, shipped half way around the world etc) they’ll have the wear and tear to evidence this and that’s part of the character of a vintage piece - but we make sure that they present beautifully and, unless clearly stated, will be without restoration / repair.
We’ve also set out to be a little different to a lot of the other film art galleries; there’s no hidden prices - no long lists of framing options, no costly shipping. All our posters are professionally framed, glazed and ready to hang - we found out the hard way that framing can be a total mine-field; terrible quality, terribly expensive or both! For the last year or so we’ve been working with a fantastic framer who consistently delivers a flawless product and so that’s how the posters will come - ready to enjoy. On top of this UK delivery is included in the price. Simple.