?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
J. S. ANDERSON MOTORISTS PREFER SHELL. 1935. 293/4x441/2 inches. Condition B: restored losses and extensive overpainting in margins, some affecting text; minor creases in margins and image. Shell, under the direction of Jack Beddington, was one of Britain's strongest patrons of advertising arts (along with the London underground). Year after year Beddington orchestrated remarkable campaigns that were spread through the country on his trucks. Among his innovative advertising ideas was to let the British rediscover their country ( with the series "See Britain First," 1932, "Everywhere You Go," 1932 and "Visit Britain's Landmarks," 1937). In 1935 he had another original concept, which was to show that members of all different professions, from footballers to journalists, used Shell. Many of the posters in the series are not as straight forward as Anderson's, (such engaging non-sequiturs as "Smoker's Prefer Shell," "Theatre-Goers Use Shell," "Blondes and Brunettes," etc), but his encapsulates the heart and soul of oil: an engine. The image is a very modernistic vision of an engine with its pistons pumping, driving the suggestion of a car whose speeding front wheel can be seen. A classic example of Machine Age representation in advertising. Shell 57, Purvis p. 54, Word and Image p. 84.
