Looking more ‘theatrical playbill’ than ‘key art,’ this One Sheet, for the Lumière Brothers’ travelling collection of short films, is a beautiful, even understated, representation of its time. Released in December 1895, to advertise a bold new entartinment technology, and the first collection of short films to be viewed by a paying public at the Grand Café Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, it is considered the first movie poster.

The original printing of the poster for Cinématographe Lumière recently went up for auction at Sootheby’s (about USD$50,000 starting price, if you are curious) as part of a collection of rare and ‘aesthetically significant’ art for film advertising.

Bidding starts 4 days from now.