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Keep a Guard on What You Say

Poster
1941 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Abram Games designed many British wartime propaganda posters over the course of his military service, including some 100 posters for the Army alone. The designer was Jewish and felt deeply for the victims of atrocities at the hands of Axis forces. This poster promotes wartime vigilance and discretion though the clever pairing of the colloquial phrase "keep a guard on what you say", and Games' visual pun of a man whose mouth is guarded by a sentry.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleKeep a Guard on What You Say
Materials and techniques
Colour lithography
Brief description
'Keep a Guard on What You Say'. Colour lithograph propaganda poster warning against careless talk, with a design featuring a geometric human face. Designed by Abram Games. Issued by the War Office during the Second World War. Great Britain. 1941.
Physical description
'Keep a Guard on What You Say'. Colour lithograph propaganda poster warning against careless talk, with a design featuring a geometric human face with a soldier for a mouth. Signed and dated 'A. Games 41'.
Dimensions
  • Height: 74.4cm
  • Width: 49.5cm
Dimensions taken from: Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
Marks and inscriptions
A. Games 41 (Signed and dated, lower right corner.)
Credit line
Acquired from Adrian Tilbrook in 1971.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Association
Summary
Abram Games designed many British wartime propaganda posters over the course of his military service, including some 100 posters for the Army alone. The designer was Jewish and felt deeply for the victims of atrocities at the hands of Axis forces. This poster promotes wartime vigilance and discretion though the clever pairing of the colloquial phrase "keep a guard on what you say", and Games' visual pun of a man whose mouth is guarded by a sentry.
Associated object
E.883-2004 (Duplicate)
Bibliographic references
  • Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
  • Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1971
Other number
14/B7 - V&A microfiche
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.293-1971

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Record createdDecember 13, 2005
Record URL
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