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Darrell Kobza Art Services

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Toronto, ON
Darrell Kobza Art Services

Original vintage posters, movie, travel etc. Restoration conservatio of paper based works of art. Cus

We sell original vintage posters, movie, travel, music and theatre. We offer conservation and restoration services including archival linen backing of antique posters. Complete archival custom framing service for any type of works of art.

08/26/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN-Canada/US tariff wars.

OK! Usually we talk about the various posters…rarity, condition, issues and what kind of mystical magic was employed to return them to a state of WOW!

The business environment has changed and ‘will be’ affected by the Geo-Politics presently dismantling world supply chains.

How will our business by impacted?
Pulp and paper products are part of the new tariffs and we use artist quality acid free paper on each linen backed poster!
Fabrics…in this case cotton, as in artist painting canvas ( not grown in Canada) used as the base of all linen backing.
Jin-Sofu Japanese wheat starch paste which is best quality and highest standard glue that we use to mount all paper and posters….only found in Japan.

The writing is on the wall and the reality is that the pricing is going to go up…..

I’m putting it out there that in the next couple of months if you don’t see prices rise then you need to asking yourself a serious question…..why not?

Be aware of what materials are being used in the conservation and restoration of your prized posters….there are lesser quality options out there, cheaper, not acid free or conservation grade….know what you are paying for and what you are getting.

No one can escape the impact of rising costs……linen backers included.

All posters linen backed and restored and done in one morning’s work😂🤪😂🤪

08/23/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN - CNE Days

As the summer days shorten, the temperature cools and the days count down until school starts…our oh-so brief few summer months draw to an end.

BUT THE WORK GOES ON!

I wish I could say these posters only took me one day to complete ( absolute hilarity and raucous cat-calls form the peanut gallery), no, indeed they did take the better part of the last two weeks of work doing this batch of 25 linen backed posters that all needed varying amounts of restoration and quite a lot of touch-ups.

Mark my words, the day is coming when a linen backing studio will open, staffed with robots that will remove old staples from the stretcher and re-stretch those frames with new canvas ( 24/7 ) and then mount the acid free paper after they cooked and prepared the Jin Sofu wheat starch paste and quite possibly even do the washing and preping of the posters before applying the paste and mounting them on the stretchers……maybe in not to distant future these robots will also be able to do the in-painting and touch ups as well….and…..working 24/7 they will be doing multiple hundreds of posters a week because after all that is what everyone wants, next day turn around at discount prices…..‘I have a dream!’, I once heard before a bullet to the head ended that nonsense.

Yes yes, yes…all posters linen backed and restored as needed and to all of our clients a big shout-out, Thank you for trusting our work, the process, our integrity.

08/06/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN - AUG. ED

There seems to be a movement or emphasis emerging in the linen backing conservation community that reflects a fascinating shift from what traditionally was the quality, care and ultimate finished end results of a conservation project, to what now has become the focus or hot point of……how many posters can be done in a single day or week or month!

I have seen posts where these numbers range from 30 posters/day to 80-100/week.

Granted, if your linen backing studio employ’s 10-20 people working in unison these numbers could be possible, but is that where we want our years of training, dedication, discipline and hands on experience to be diminished too!? Fast food! Drive Through! Door Dash Posters!?

The Idiom…..’ the devil is in the details’ speaks volumes when it comes to restoring, conserving and linen backing posters…..in fact any restoration project requires time for assessment, analysis, preparation, testing and determinations of papers, inks, surface stability, etc…..not mention drying times, touchup time, packing, shipping…..

Reard of California bathing suits…1950’s French Grande 46” x 63”

Taillan Grand Vin…..1920’s French Grande 46” x 63”

Bring Him Home with The Victory Loan…..1918

07/21/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN
Summer in the city……is it safe to go into the water!?

So many great and fun posters in this batch…from Boris Karloff to John Travolta, Sleeping Beauty to Cannible Holocaust, John Williams to Led Zeppelin…….

This entire batch of posters came to us from our friends Vintage Horror

Spain won the World Cup this past week and just about everything in the world is upside-down geopolitically speaking and it’s utterly unimportant but in my 30+ years of doing restoration and linen backing this was first time I have worked on, ‘ Saturday Night Fever’!

To all of you out in the world, enjoy the summer, keep cool, and remember ….tomorrow’s a new day, new hope, new opportunities! Be kind.

06/26/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN

Summer is here, school is out and it’s time to get back in the water! 🏊🏻‍♀️

1978 JAWS 2, US one sheet, folded with creases, linen backed and as smooth as a new borns back side.

2….MICH ( Michel Liebeaux ) French Grande size posters 46” x 63” Great illustration and design on these aperitif posters which we linen backed and restored.
Note the detail of the label on the bottle neck that I have included….both of these posters are from the 1910 approximately…..115 years old and looking just off the printing press…..talk about quality.

3….WWI Victory Bonds and workers supporting the war effort posters.
Keep all Canadians Busy, the quintessential busy beaver poster!
4 Reasons for buying Bonds, and ‘The Man Behind the Man Behind the Gun’
All I will say is that’s one hell of an artillery shell!

3….Canadian Pacific travel posters from the 1930’s……all posters had significant condition issues ranging from missing paper, tape stains bleeding through from the back, surface creasing and cracking of silk screen inks, many were in multiple pieces that needed to be reconstituted…….they look great now.
Presentation condition after linen backing and restoration is very good but auction condition would be good with significant repairs.

06/23/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN

Most of my cinephile followers will recognize the first three images but does anyone know the last without looking at the movie poster?

Three B1 29”x 40” Japanese posters, AKIRA 1988
Bringing Anime to the world!

Twin Peaks Japanese B2 20” x 29” 1992 David Lynch

Cinderella, Japanese B2 20”x 29” 1961 Walt Disney Studios

Last Year at Marienbad Japanese B2 re-release 1983 Alain Robbe-Grillet

Andrei Rublyov, Japanese B2 1974 Andrei Tarkovsky

All posters have been linen backed and restored as needed.
From DAVE MILLIGAN - EXOTIC ORIGINALS

06/21/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN
A WHOLE LOT OF TEETH AND BONES EDITION

If anyone doesn’t recognize these teeth, think Canadian, think…In Living Colour, think…the Riddler, think….The Grinch…think Jim Carry!
The Mask 1994 Lebanese poster, beautiful litho poster, 26” x40” linen backed.

Also from 1994, Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carry, Jeff Daniels….Lebanese poster…linen backed with those teeth again!

Bring back the days when p**n stars were running for vice-president instead of multi-billionaires!
1977 RABID, Marilyn Chambers ‘transitioned’ ……not from what you’re thinking….from p**n star to mainstream movie actress….who caught a transmissible disease.
The image appears photographic but when you look closer! Linen backed and restored.

Andy Warhols Frankenstein 1974 German poster….teeth, bones and all kinds of other body parts doing who knows what with other body parts!!….great design, linen backed and restored as needed.

1972 English poster for Tales of the Crypt, Peter Cushing, Joan Collins and cast of teeth and bones….this poster came to us massively damaged! Big chunks of paper rotted away from being stored in ‘mud’! We cleaned it, bathed it, linen backed, repaired it and touched it up so it looks….’ Pretty damn good lads!’

SQUIRM 1976. Great image of teeth, bones, intestines, worms….all the things I want hanging in my bedroom at night! Fun poster design and linen backed with restoration on fold lines……sweet dreams my lovely!
All posters from our friends Vintage Horror

06/02/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN
‘LET’S TALK PAPER!’

The issue! Most, not all but most commercial papers used for posters are not acid free or artist grade which means the paper will not remain white over time……chemicals used in the manufacturing process of these papers, bleaching agents, binders, anti-fungal compounds etc are not completely removed from the paper and through a process known as ‘off-gassing’ these chemicals break down, decompose, degrade and ultimately, ‘tone’ or darken the paper as time moves forward.

From a restoration perspective this a challenge!
As soon as you paint, air brush, draw over the natural paper surface it never ever blends in perfectly….even if your colour matches perfectly, the fact that you have added pigment on the surface of the natural paper, it will be noticeable.

Le Fakyr 1921 by Michel Liebeaux, 1881-1923 is a French Grande size poster 46” x 63” wonderful Aperitif product design.

2- Japanese STB Tatekan formate posters 20” x 56” ………Lady Snowblood and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. These are printed on two separate pieces of paper that are meant to be joined and in the case of the Umbrellas of Cherbourg the two pieces were joined together for years using cellophane tape on the front surface of the poster. The glue migrated into the white paper and oxidized and turned dark brown.
Despite what some linen backers might claim, there is no chemical treatment to remove these stains, you must over paint to restore the poster and in this case the colour was the natural colour of the paper……very tricky…..and to those who would say, air brush over it, I say…bonne chance mon ami!

Lawrence of Arabia and The Thing….Japanese B2 posters 20” x 28”…….Lawrence of Arabia had large amounts of discolouring and damage in the sky area and in this case air brushing did resolve the issue.

Enter the Dragon 1973 Italian one panel or as it’s known in Italy as, 2-Fogli, 39” x 55”

VENEZIA travel poster, 1938 printed by, ENIT Ente Nazionale Italiano per il Turismo (‘Italian National Agency for Tourism’)

LŐTSCHBERG BAHN SCHWEIZ 1931, Artiste : Eugen Henziross……wonderful image of Switzerland countryside and mountains.

05/31/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN
‘LET’S GO CANADA!’ EDITION

Fly TCA, Trans-Canada Air Lines 1953 poster featuring our Royal Canadian Mounted Police. TCA was founded in 1937 as Canada’s own national air line owned by Canadian National Railway and renamed in 1965 as Air Canada.
Lovely silk screen printed poster which our client decided to leave unrestored……silk screen ink is very thick in comparison to off set litho and suffers surface fractures in the ink at the slightest folding or rolling of the paper. Design by J. Le Flaguais

Next we have an impossibility rare, meaning I could find no reference of this poster’s existence online or in Marc Choko’s reference book on Canadian Pacific posters.
According to Choko, Norman Fraser who designed this poster worked for CP from 1930-1953, very hard to find any information on the man and yet produced some absolute gems of travel posters for CP.
This poster is a silk screen that came to us in terrible condition, torn paper, literally pieces falling apart, some idiot had put cellophane tape on the front of the poster trying to hold it together where the cracks and tears were and the surface was completely covered with ink fracturing as I described above. Many hours of restoration went into this rare, possibly one of the few existing copies in existence poster. Check it out here because you won’t find it anywhere else.

Let’s go….Canada, WWI poster, very famous design and again, rough condition when it came through our doors but looking very presentable as it goes out and off to its new home.
Canada, Our home and native land!

05/29/2026

FROM THE LINEN BACKING KITCHEN
( WHAT DO THOSE INVADERS FROM SPACE REALLY WANT!)

From 1959, The Mysterians. TOHO Production, RKO Radio, US one sheet, linen backed and proving once and for all that all males, of whatever species are only interested in one thing! 😂🤪

Dinosaurs too!……One Million Years BC….Raquel Welch, 1966 Lebanese poster, stone litho, linen backed…..great image of a massive bellybutton on Raquel…..meaning!?
From our friends

Godzilla as well I suppose!! The Mystery of Monster Island, 1981 , Lebanese poster, stone litho, linen backed and restored missing paper. Great colours and printing, poor quality paper on these Lebanese posters, very ‘soft’ and easily damaged.
From our friends

Scars Of Dracula, 1970, Lebanese poster……definitely we all know what Drac was after….stone litho, fun image, linen backed with much restoration of staining though out…..looks great now! From our friends

PSYCHO 1960….this is the first re-release 1965 ‘It’s Back’ …..no-one really knows what Norman Bates was after but Janet Leigh definitely caught his gaze!
Lebanese poster, stone litho, linen backed and minty. From our friends

Army of Darkness 1992, Lebanese poster……we all know what Ash was after…..’give me some sugar baby!’ Linen backed and minty….from our friends

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned Toronto Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb 1964
US one sheet Day-Glo rare poster in mint condition.
Such an incredible movie with stellar performances from Peter Sellers and ‘ Buck’ George C. Scott who was always getting some on the side, and lesser appreciated but an equally brilliant performance by Sterling Hayden ( precious bodily fluids).
Linen backed and ready for the framing factory.

The Warriors, 1979, British one sheet, cult classic …..not my idea of a good time but I do love the City and I do miss Afro’s. Linen backed and restored for our friends

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 1974. Lebanese poster. Monsters, robots, priestesses……Japan’s psychic trauma of Nuclear war visualized in mythical monsters.

Address

3671 Lakeshore Boulevard West
Toronto, ON
M8W1P7

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 5:30pm
Thursday	10am - 5:30pm
Friday	10am - 5:30pm
Saturday	10am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+16479368566

Website

http://www.dkartservices.com/, http://dkartservices.com/

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