# Emil Cardinaux artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/emil-cardinaux/
Profile generated: 2026-05-07T03:45:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1877-11-11
- Death date: 1936-10-02
- Nationality: Swiss
- Common media: poster design, painting, graphic arts, illustration

## About Emil Cardinaux

Emil Cardinaux (1877–1936) was a Swiss painter, poster artist, graphic artist, and illustrator recognized as one of the leading figures of early twentieth-century Swiss graphic design. Active during a period when the Swiss poster tradition was gaining international prominence, Cardinaux contributed to the field through bold, visually striking compositions that blended painterly technique with commercial design. His work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he is recorded in major authority files including the Library of Congress, VIAF, the Getty Union List of Artist Names, and the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD). Cardinaux's legacy is closely tied to the golden age of the Swiss travel and tourism poster, a genre that remains highly sought after by collectors.

## Common works and media

Cardinaux is best known for lithographic posters, particularly travel and tourism posters produced in Switzerland during the early twentieth century. His output also includes paintings, graphic design works, and illustrations. Collectors may encounter original posters, reproduced poster prints, and occasional works on paper. Mediums associated with his auction appearances include color lithography on paper, oil painting, and mixed-media graphic works.

## Market and appraisal context

Emil Cardinaux has a well-documented and active secondary market anchored by 256 recorded auction lots spanning from December 2003 through March 2026, with 163 carrying documented sale prices. His market is dominated by vintage Swiss posters—especially travel and tourism designs such as the Palace Hotel / St. Moritz, Winter in St. Moritz, and Chemin de Fer de la Jungfrau series—which appear repeatedly at major houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, Swann Auction Galleries, and Poster Auctions International. Prices range from $400 for later or commercial posters (e.g., a posthumous 1949 "Peaceful Switzerland" lithograph at Eldred's) to $25,000 at the top end, with a median of $4,130 and an interquartile spread of $1,800–$10,000. The highest recent result is $16,510 for Winter in St. Moritz (1918) at Swann in February 2026, while the iconic Palace Hotel / St. Moritz (1920) achieved $12,000 at Poster Auctions International in November 2024 and $6,604 at Swann in February 2026. Liquidity is moderate and internationally distributed: 13 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months across US, UK, Swiss, and Italian houses, down from 19 the prior year, suggesting a stable but not overheated market. The multi-currency presence (USD, GBP, CHF, EUR) confirms genuinely cross-border demand.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Emil Cardinaux has a well-documented and active secondary market anchored by 256 recorded auction lots spanning from December 2003 through March 2026, with 163 carrying documented sale prices. His market is dominated by vintage Swiss posters—especially travel and tourism designs such as the Palace Hotel / St. Moritz, Winter in St. Moritz, and Chemin de Fer de la Jungfrau series—which appear repeatedly at major houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, Swann Auction Galleries, and Poster Auctions International. Prices range from $400 for later or commercial posters (e.g., a posthumous 1949 "Peaceful Switzerland" lithograph at Eldred's) to $25,000 at the top end, with a median of $4,130 and an interquartile spread of $1,800–$10,000. The highest recent result is $16,510 for Winter in St. Moritz (1918) at Swann in February 2026, while the iconic Palace Hotel / St. Moritz (1920) achieved $12,000 at Poster Auctions International in November 2024 and $6,604 at Swann in February 2026. Liquidity is moderate and internationally distributed: 13 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months across US, UK, Swiss, and Italian houses, down from 19 the prior year, suggesting a stable but not overheated market. The multi-currency presence (USD, GBP, CHF, EUR) confirms genuinely cross-border demand.

### Appraisal notes

An appraisal of a Cardinaux work should begin by establishing medium and attribution—most流通 works are color lithographic posters, and the majority of documented lots are posters rather than paintings or original illustrations. The appraiser should record dimensions, printer attribution (e.g., Wolfsberg Zurich, J.C. Muller Zurich, J.E. Wolfensberger Zurich, Paul Bender Zurich), and edition or printing date, as these details appear consistently in catalog descriptions and differentiate multiple printings of the same image. Condition grading (folds, creases, paper loss, color saturation, linen backing) is a primary value driver: the wide price dispersion ($400–$25,000) for a single artist reflects condition and rarity differences more than subject matter alone. Provenance should be traced where possible; institutional provenance (e.g., prior collection history tied to museum deaccessions or named collections) can materially affect value. Comparable lots should be drawn from the same title or series, prioritizing results from Swann, Poster Auctions International, Christie's, and Sotheby's, which are the most frequent and reliable houses for this artist's material. Currency conversion should use the auction-date exchange rate when mixing USD, GBP, CHF, and EUR comparables.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- Cardinaux's market is accessible to collectors at multiple price points. Entry-level lots begin around $400–$1,500 for commercial advertising posters or examples with condition issues, while iconic travel posters such as Palace Hotel / St. Moritz and Winter in St. Moritz routinely achieve $6,000–$17,000 at specialist houses. The Palace Hotel / St. Moritz (1920) design is the most frequently appearing title and a useful benchmark for tracking market movement. Buyers should be aware that posthumous or later printings exist (e.g., a 1949 "Peaceful Switzerland" poster sold for $400 at Eldred's)—original period lithographs from 1908–1936 command significantly higher prices than later reproductions. The market is genuinely international, with results in USD, GBP, CHF, and EUR; Swiss and UK house results are particularly relevant for travel posters. Demand appears stable rather than speculative, with 13–19 lots per year and no single house dominating supply. Collectors seeking investment-grade material should prioritize Condition A or A- examples of the St. Moritz or Jungfrau railway titles with full printer attribution and documented provenance.

### Market caveats

- Price data is derived from the Appraisily auction record index and Invaluable lot listings; not every lot has a documented realized price (93 of 256 lots lack a price), so the true median may differ slightly.
- Results span multiple currencies (USD, GBP, CHF, EUR); direct price comparison requires currency normalization at the auction-date exchange rate.
- The lot titled "Peaceful Switzerland, 1949" postdates Cardinaux's death in 1936 and is likely a posthumous reproduction or reissue; it sold for $400 and should not be treated as a comparable for original period lithographs.
- Some lots lack source URLs or images, making independent verification of catalog descriptions more difficult.
- No original oil paintings by Cardinaux appear in the recent lot sample; valuation guidance here is specific to posters and works on paper. Paintings, if encountered, would require separate comparable analysis.
- Auction estimates are not included in the source data, so the ratio of estimates to realized prices cannot be assessed.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/emil-cardinaux/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable (Joshua Kodner): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-1877-1936-stone-lithograph-206-c-9c04c33865
- Invaluable (Poster Auctions International): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-rio-grande-la-rosa-marke-weber-vintage-poster-142-c-1b35a26fa1
- Invaluable (Poster Auctions International): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-b-fehlbaum-kinder-jacken-vintage-poster-141-c-ccb094c6dd
- Invaluable (Swann Auction Galleries): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-palace-hotel-st-moritz-1920-226-c-4884625d34
- Invaluable (Swann Auction Galleries): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-confection-kehl-pkz-1908-224-c-1c1b98b441
- Invaluable (Swann Auction Galleries): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-winter-in-st-moritz-1918-225-c-3db0911a22
- Invaluable (Sworders): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-swiss-1877-1936-st-moritz-111-c-7ca6793457
- Invaluable (Eldred's): https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-emil-cardinaux-switzerland-1877-1936-peaceful-switzerland-1949-color-lithograph-poster-40-x-25-5-framed-44-5-x-30-3169-c-f1f41b1974

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum records, library authority files, and scholarly databases with available auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. For Emil Cardinaux, this page draws on records from the Museum of Modern Art, the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), the Library of Congress, VIAF, and Wikidata.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3052207
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/74768898/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no96008738
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/968
- Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/15294