Chilton Longley’s Art Deco Postcards
Chilton Longley (1894-1966) was a British painter, poster artist, and illustrator of postcards. There is virtually no information to be found anywhere about him, or more precisely nothing about the postcard artist who signed his work “Chilton Longley”. There is, however, a website that provides some information about the postcard artist S.S. Longley who allegedly was born Stanislaus Soutten Longley in Aylesbury in 1894 and who “is perhaps not to be confused with another artist named as Chilton Langley who had a slightly different style.” Now there is in fact no Chilton Langley. There is only a Chilton Longley, and although the postcards signed Chilton Longley might be a little bit different in style from those signed S.S. Longley, there is really not much of a difference. Chilton Longley’s postcards were also all published by A.G. & Co. (G. Ajelli & Co.) in London, just like S.S. Langley’s postcards, and their signatures are very much alike, so that it’s pretty safe to assume that Chilton Longley and S.S. Longley were in fact the same artist. Perhaps Stanislas at some point in his career as an illustrator decided to adopt a more English-sounding name.
Aside from his postcards, Longley contributed illustrations to leading London magazines such as The Sketch and The Graphic, and later created a series of posters for the London Underground.
