Publisher's Synopsis
The very best of Shell art from the collection housed at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. These posters are more than just a vibrant celebration of one company's enlightened and eclectic advertising policy - they are superb pieces of art in their own right. From the 1920s to the 1950s Shell produced some of the most memorable advertising posters Britain has ever seen. Used as lorry bills, the posters are both extremely fine examples of commercial art and a nostalgic view of a lost Britain. The list of artists commissioned by Shell reads like a Who's Who of the British art establishment of the period - Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Vanessa Bell, Ben Nicholson, Rex Whistler and Edward McKnight Kauffer. Shell realised early on that its advertisements promoted not only petrol and oil but also motoring, and motoring meant special pleasures - exhilaration, freedom and the joys of the countryside. And so Shell took the whole of Britain as its theme - landmarks, institutions, events, follies and foibles.
