Raymond Sheppard and Car magazines

Autocar 22 Feb 1952

Raymond Sheppard produced many drawings for advertisements over the years - the most famous being the Esso Tiger (more of which another day). I wanted to focus on Autocar and The Motor magazines today as I was so surprised to discover Sheppard here!

Autocar 12 Dec 1952

According to Grace's Guide (the leading source of information about industry and manufacturing in Britain from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the present time),Iliffe and Sons Ltd, of Coventry created "The Autocar (price 3d. weekly), which was founded as far back as 1895, and has always been regarded as the leading motor paper and the authority on all motoring matters, not only in this country, but also abroad. It enjoys the largest circulation of any automobile paper published throughout the world.".  

Apparently it still has 16 editions worldwide! "In 1988, it absorbed its long-time rival The Motor magazine, founded on January 28 1903, briefly calling itself Autocar & Motor afterwards, before reverting to Autocar", says Wikipedia.

The cover picture appears to have started in the 1920s from covers I can find on the Net, with major car companies and also secondary car industries taking the poll position such as 'Fram Oil Cleaner' and more relevant to this article 'Lockheed Hydraulic Brakes'.

The Sheppard illustrations are in full colour and as you can see show a black-headed gull, a kingfisher, a sparrowhawk catching a pigeon in mid-air, a kingfisher and a herd of elephants. Both magazines had similar covers which must have caused confusion for the gentleman commuting to the City when grabbing it from a railway newspaper stand in 1952 and 1953

Would they have sold more car parts, or got a loyal following for Lockheed as a result of a beautifully drawn naturalistic setting? I doubt it myself, but I'm glad Sheppard got the job!

As a footnote all of these covers have the initials C.J.L. on them under the 'banner' Lockheed blurb. Any ideas want this meant? The advertising firm who sold the artwork to the magazine?

The Motor 26 Nov 1952

The Motor 24 Dec 1952

  

Autocar 18 Sep 1953
and also The Motor 4 March 1953

Raymond Sheppard and Noah's Ark Annual 1937

Raymond Sheppard was born in 1913 and as with all artists from this era that I look at, it is difficult to find his earliest published professional work. Why am I being so pedantic? Because those of you who have read my short piece in Illustrators #2 might remember he won a prize in a drawing competition at the age of 7 years of age. Here's a rough copy of the Observer of 13 March 1921

Observer 13 march 1921 p.

However I'd like to add that I suspect the following is one of his earliest professional pieces to appear in print. I know of some Boy's Own Paper work in 1938 and books in 1939. Steve Holland answered an email regarding the pictures on his site saying he wasn't sure he had time to explore them any further, but liked the covers when he discovered them in an archive, having only the time to photograph them.

I have scanned the two pieces in Noah's Ark Annual 1937 that are signed ("Sheppard") together with the cover, although I do wonder about some other illustrations in the book that although unsigned might be Sheppard. Noah's Ark Annual ran from 1934-1937 and was published by Amalgamated Press and thankfully for me has page numbers!

The first Sheppard illustration shows a boy and man in a trap in a farmyard with piglets running in the background and a cockerel in the foreground. The second is of three girls (and their terrier) at the pond or lake's edge feeding flying gulls and - what appear to be -  giant swans!

Cover - Artist unknown

Page 29: A day with Dobbin

Page 75 Feeding the birds in the park