Employees slacking off? One remedy in 1923-1929 was a series of 23 eye-catching Mather Work Incentive posters to be featured in a Swann Galleries auction on August 4. In “Ready To Spring” a tiger crouches above a cautionary message: “The mistakes you don’t correct lie in wait to catch you again.” Two other posters presciently warn of gas leaks. “Stop the leak before it stops you,” reads the message in “A Hole In the Gas Tank,” which BP might heed.
Also in  Swann’s sale is a series of World War II posters, including Dal Holcomb’s 1942 work that warns “Loose Talk Can Cost Lives.” As Swann’s Hillary Brody observes, it’s “a friendly reminder in a time when people share every intimate detail of their lives online. “ The sale , consisting of 384 lots, features a broad range of advertising and travel posters, as well as those with aeronautical and maritime themes.
Read more at Swann Galleries.
