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Jean D'Ylen (1886-1938), Shell Oil and Petrol, The Quick Starting Pair, printed by Vercasson 1926, 75 x 114cm. Estimate: £3,000-£4,000 ($4,928-$6,570). Onslows image.

Rare Shell Oil poster a favorite in Onslows auction Dec. 20

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

Jean D'Ylen (1886-1938), Shell Oil and Petrol, The Quick Starting Pair, printed by Vercasson 1926, 75 x 114cm. Estimate: £3,000-£4,000 ($4,928-$6,570). Onslows image.

Jean D’Ylen (1886-1938), Shell Oil and Petrol, The Quick Starting Pair, printed by Vercasson 1926, 75 x 114cm. Estimate: £3,000-£4,000 ($4,928-$6,570). Onslows image.

STOURPAINE, England – A rare and beautiful Shell Oil and Petrol poster by Jean d’Ylen, a French master of poster design, is one of the great items that Onslows will be offering in a Winter Vintage Posters auction on Friday, Dec. 20. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The poster was discovered among a collection of vintage movie posters. Few Shell posters from this early period have survived, and the example in Onslows’ sale is in near-perfect condition with the lithograph colors as fresh and vibrant as the day the poster was printed. The artist is known to have designed a number of posters for Shell and this example is the first time the Shell slogan “The Quick Starting Pair” was used on what became a successful and varied series of posters from 1926 to 1931. D’Ylen worked exclusively for the Paris Agents and Printers Etablissements Vercasson, whose quality of stone lithography has rarely been bettered.

A classic 1940s British beach poster is one of an amazing collection recently discovered under the linoleum floor covering of a house in Edinburgh. The finder had bought the house to renovate and while tearing up the floor luckily realized what the paper lining the floor covering actually was. This is not the first time Onslows have sold poster collections that have been discovered in this situation. The poster depicts a happy family scene at the famous seaside and night spot of the north Blackpool. The artist Septimus Edwin Scott worked mainly for the London Midland and Scottish Railway specializing particularly in striking bathing scenes.

The auction will also offer a single-owner collection of World War II posters by the designer Fougasse (Kenneth Cyril Bird 1887-1965) who designed the most famous posters of the war “Careless Talk Cost Livves.”

The 329-lot auction has a wide variety of posters to all tastes and pockets.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Jean D'Ylen (1886-1938), Shell Oil and Petrol, The Quick Starting Pair, printed by Vercasson 1926, 75 x 114cm. Estimate: £3,000-£4,000 ($4,928-$6,570). Onslows image.

Jean D’Ylen (1886-1938), Shell Oil and Petrol, The Quick Starting Pair, printed by Vercasson 1926, 75 x 114cm. Estimate: £3,000-£4,000 ($4,928-$6,570). Onslows image.

Sep E. Scott (1879-1962), Blackpool, printed for LMS by London Lithographic Co., 1949, 102 x 127 cm. Estimate: £1,500-£2,000 ($2,464-$3,285). Onslows image.

Sep E. Scott (1879-1962), Blackpool, printed for LMS by London Lithographic Co., 1949, 102 x 127 cm. Estimate: £1,500-£2,000 ($2,464-$3,285). Onslows image.