Shell Art & Advertising

ScottAnthony is a writer and historian. His books include Night Mail (2007), TheProjection of Britain (2011) and The Story of Propaganda (2021). NickyBalfour Penney (contributor) is the Shell Heritage Art CollectionManager. Oliver Green is former Head Curator and now Research Fellow at the LondonTransport Museum and a freelance historian and museums consultant. Hispublications include London’s Underground: The Story of the Tube (2019) andBritish Aviation Posters: Art, Design and Flight (2012). Margaret Timmers wasformerly Senior Curator of Prints in the Word & Image Department of theV&A. She is the editor of The Power of the Poster (1998) and co-editorwith Gill Saunders of The Poster: A Visual History (2020).

• Foreword, David Gentleman; Introduction - The Spirit of Advertising, Nicky Balfour Penney; It Started with a Seashell: Shell Origins, Oliver Green; Posters, Patronage and Prestige: 1928-1945, Margaret Timmers; Shell: The Work of Art, Scott Anthony; Shell's Art Heritage: Collections, Curation and Outreach, Nicky Balfour Penney and Margaret Timmers; Profiles; Notes; Further Reading; Acknowledgements; Image Credits; Index

‘[Shell’s] publicity was multimedia. There were the whimsical Shell Guides by John Betjeman and John Piper, and a film unit of such distinction that during World War II Beddington was seconded to the Ministry of Information to make documentaries. These events are told in lively and well-researched text and one learns much about the Shell Guides in particular, but it’s the skill and variety of the poster art that will persuade most people to buy this book. The oil behemoth’s output celebrated the British landscape or quirky landmarks, often using contemporary artists to highlight the modern world that petrol had brought into being.’  – World of Interiors