£300
MODERN MADE | Design on the Move: Posters from the Shell Heritage Art Collection | 655
Auction: 29 April 2021 at 19:00 BST
lithographic poster, 1937, condition A-; not backed, framed
Literature:
Hewitt, The Shell Poster Book, 81.
This poster was part of an advertising campaign series entitled ‘To Visit Britain’s Landmarks’. The series comprised a selection of follies and sometimes unusual attractions, encouraging the public to explore the British countryside.
Tom Gentleman was born in Scotland and moved to London in the 1920s for a job at Crawford’s advertising agency. In 1932, Gentleman was put in charge of the Shell Studio, under Jack Beddington, Shell’s Publicity Manager. This poster stands out as the only one in the ‘To Visit Britain’s Landmarks’ series to have been given a quirky title. All of the others were simply given a building name and county, but the church at Ayot St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire is prefixed ‘A Strange Church’.