Victorian printers reserved type this size for travelling circuses, prize fights and the end of the world. The Grand Old Game borrows the whole apparatus and points it at golf — which, given that people have been losing sleep over it since the fifteenth century, seems about the right billing.
THE GRAND OLD GAME is stacked in three lines of ornate woodtype heavy enough to throw its own drop shadow, the way a bill had to when it was competing with a wet street. Beneath it sits a small engraved oval: a figure in period dress caught at the top of the swing, flanked by two vermilion rules. Under that, in patient small caps between two more red rules, EST. THE 15TH CENTURY. The sheet is bordered twice over, with scroll-and-star flourishes at every corner, and the cream ground carries letterpress texture and honest foxing — all of it drawn, not scanned.
Printed on uncoated enhanced matte art paper, so the aged cream reads as paper rather than as a photograph of paper, and the black ink sits down into the surface instead of shining off it. It ships unframed and rolled at a standard 16 × 20 in sheet size, hung landscape, so any off-the-shelf frame of that size will take it.
The details
- Paper: 189 g/m² enhanced matte art paper, 10.3 mil (0.26 mm) thick — substantial enough to hang flat once framed.
- Finish: uncoated matte with 94% opacity and 104% ISO brightness, so the woodtype stays dense and glare-free under a lamp. Paper milled in Japan.
- Size and orientation: the 16 × 20 in sheet hangs landscape — 20 in wide by 16 in tall. The square artwork panel sits centred with an even white border on all sides.
- Unframed, shipped rolled in a protective tube — 16 × 20 in is a standard US frame size, so no custom mat is needed.
- Made to order in the United States, printed for you rather than pulled from stock.
Quick answers
Does it come framed?
No — it ships unframed and rolled in a protective tube. The sheet is a standard 16 × 20 in and hangs landscape, so an off-the-shelf frame of that size fits it straight away. Buy the frame for a landscape opening rather than a portrait one. A dark wood or plain black frame suits the vermilion and cream best.
What is printed on the poster?
THE GRAND OLD GAME in three stacked lines of ornamental woodtype, an oval engraved vignette of a golfer in period dress mid-swing, and EST. THE 15TH CENTURY in small caps between vermilion rules — all inside a double-ruled border with corner flourishes, on an aged cream ground.
Is the aged look printed, or is the paper actually old?
Printed. The foxing marks, letterpress texture and worn edges are part of the original artwork and are printed fresh onto new matte art paper — so it reads a century old and behaves like a brand-new print.
Who is it for?
Hickory and persimmon-era enthusiasts, club history readers, and anyone starting a vintage golf wall. Because it names the game rather than a specific club or tournament, it works in a study, a home bar, a clubhouse or a pro shop without picking a side.
Five centuries of the same argument with a small white ball. Bill it properly.
