£525
MODERN MADE | Design on the Move: Posters from the Shell Heritage Art Collection | 655
Auction: 29 April 2021 at 19:00 BST
lithographic poster, 1952, condition A-; not backed
The ‘Everywhere you Go’ You can be Sure of Shell’ series featured fine landmarks, historical sights and inspiring landscapes, all firmly located in the countryside. It was an idealized view of a rural order much sought after by the middle classes, particularly those from large towns. “By celebrating and making accessible such rural delights, Shell won the plaudits of powerful pressure groups who sought to protect the countryside from urban expansion and the destruction of rural amenities by advertising hoardings”. The first exhibition of these Shell posters took place at the New Burlington Galleries in June 1931.
Paul Sheriff’s commission from Shell featured a village on one of the small inlets of Chichester harbor in West Sussex, which has played an important part in the history of the UK over the centuries. It was from Bosham that Harold II set forth in 1064 to negotiate with William of Normandy, a voyage that led to William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066; Bosham features in the Bayeaux Tapestry.