?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
HOOPER ROWE (DATES UNKNOWN) BP ETHYL FOR ANTI - KNOCK / CONTROLS HORSE - POWER. Circa 1930s. 30x44 1/4 inches, 75 3/4x112 1/2 cm Condition B: replaced left margin; replaced corners; restored losses, repaired tears, creases, abrasions and overpainting in margins and image. "Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd. have greatly developed the art of the unusual in poster design, and the quaint symbolic figures in this lorry bill by Hooper Rowe are certainly novel enough to rivet attention, though the purpose is the eminently practical one of emphasizing the high 'anti-knock' qualities of B.P. Ethyl - an essential quality to the modern high- compression engine" (Modern Publicity 1933, p. 44). In the 1930s, BP made a conscious effort to employ Modernist artists and designs in their advertising to convey the forward thinking, technologically advanced nature of its products, perfectly suited for a modern, industrial world. BP's commitment to avant-garde, contemporary design led the Director of the National Gallery in London, Kenneth Clark to praise them as "among the best patrons of modern art." Poster Progress p. 47.
