"Turner's" Flamingos by artist A.T. Toran, Offset Lithograph produced in the 1940s by Turner Decorative Accessories - 22" tall by 28" wide.
Included with each purchase of Turner’s Flamingos:
Lithograph Care Sheet
Letter of Authenticity from Turner Manufacturing Company, 1981
Story of Depression Era Artists by C. Terone
The Turner Story, Part I: The Company
The Turner Story, Part II: The Artist
When you think of vintage pink flamingos, this is the original artwork that comes to mind. In 1980, my parents purchased the remainder of this subject from Turner Manufacturing Company as they were shutting down operations. As such, we are the only source of these authentic, vintage mint condition prints. Stock is limited, and once it is gone—it is gone. Modern reproductions would be only that: modern reproductions. This is "new vintage" stock—stock that has never been displayed, framed, or used in any way. The paper is "stippled" and is a true collector's item. This incredibly rare, limited stock is solely owned and distributed by Pink Flamingos, LLC.
Curious to learn more about this iconic print? My parents spent years tracking down the artist and developed a friendship with his widow. Years of correspondence pieced together the puzzle on who the person was behind this beautiful piece of art. This is little-known history that I believe has never been published before, but I've put together a two-part blog series on the history of this historical print:
(From The Turner Story, Part II: The Artist)
Turner was not the artist.
Since the mid-seventies, there has been a growing appreciation and demand for the extraordinary series of tropical bird pictures, which consisted of various groupings of flamingos, egrets, cockatoos and swans, first popular in the 1940’s. The series was published by one of the world’s largest decorative wall accessories manufacturers: Turner Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois.
During the Depression and years following, both art students and established artists were hired by publishing companies to create original art and subsequent adaptations to complement current furniture styles. Subtle sensuous and erotic nuances exuded from Deco period florals, native scenes, panthers and tropical bird subjects.
The name of the artist, whose tropical bird series became the biggest seller in the history of decorative wall accessories, was A. T. Toran. Born in Naples, Italy, on May 17, 1896, Mr. Toran was a painter most famous for his mural work in hotels Delmonaco, Pierre, New Yorker, Waldorf Astoria of New York, and the Chrysler Building and Massanutten Military Academy. He was a member of Hollywood Arts and Crafts Guild and Director of Creative Studios of Art and Decoration of New York. Mr. Toran met a tragic death in an automobile accident in 1965.
Turner Manufacturing Company also encountered an unhappy ending. After more than eighty successful years of business, the company was purchased by an international conglomerate in the early seventies, then suddenly closed March, 1980, with 350 loyal and skilled employees put out of work.
Pink Flamingos, Inc., of Sacramento, California, was fortunate in the acquisition of the Turner tropical bird series originals (8” x 10” oil on plywood) by A. T. Toran. Also purchased from Turner’s Chicago Vault were 60 other originals from the 1930’s and 1940’s, some never before published, yet with the unmistakable sensuous and erotic style of the highly collectible 40’s art.
Flamingos is the only surviving lithograph from the tropical bird series first produced by Turner Manufacturing Company in the 1940’s that had been kept by Turner. Around 1980, after years of searching, Pink Flamingos, Inc., found and purchased the last of a limited number of Flamingos from Turner’s Chicago Vault, where they had been carefully stored in brown paper for 30 years. Sources at Turner Manufacturing Company reported that most all other 40’s art had been purposely destroyed in the mid-seventies to make room for current, modern inventory.
Learn more about Turner Manufacturing in The Turner Story, Part I: The Company
Each print comes with a copy of the letter of authenticity from Turner Decorative Accessories, a copy of a story about Depression Era Artists by another Turner artist, and a copy of my two-part blog on the subject.
Pink Flamingos, LLC, owns the original reproduction rights to this subject, and as such any reproductions are prohibited without our express consent.
From Our Hands to Your Home: The Art of Vintage Print Shipping by Emily McBride
