Raymond Sheppard and Paynocil advertising

Christine Sheppard has, in her cuttings file of her father's work, some advertising which I thought I'd reproduce one day. In research terms ephemera like advertising brochures are so valuable but so elusive. The UK has had legal deposit on books and journals (or magazines) for decades, but ephemera is another matter.Sometimes it's a piece of luck that exposes these to the world! In my work I often test databases by using familiar terms and yes, "Raymond Sheppard" is one of them. So imagine my surprise when searching the Wellcome Trust's Library catalogue! Here's the link to all 6 in the series which I have reproduced below with permission.

Water buffalo and cattle egrets

The series of adverts were produced for C.L. Bencard Limited for their aspirin variant called Paynocil - see the other parts of the leaflet below. The Wellcome Library describe the leaflet as "folded sheet (4 unnumbered pages) :colour ;14 x 33 cm folded to 14 x 21 cm". below are the other parts of the above.

A search on the Internet soon told me these appeared around 1956 for example in The Chemist and Druggist (May 12 p.13). It describes itself as "The weekly newspaper for pharmacy and all sections of the drug, pharmaceutical and fine chemical, cosmetic, and allied industries, Official organ of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland".

Sources state that the company C.L. Bencard Limited was founded in 1934 in Devon and began specializing in allergy medicines, such as for hay-fever and asthma. In 1949 Beecham Group Limited acquired C.L. Bencard, "a company specialising in allergy vaccines". In 1998 there was a management buy-out of Bencard from Smithkline Beecham. However, strangely, there is an entry in the London Gazette (3 April 1934) which states that at an extraordinary meeting of the company, on 28 March 1934 "that the company be wound up voluntarily, and that Christian Louis Bencard, of 8, Cavendish Drive, Canons Park, Middlesex, Merchant, be and he is hereby appointed Liquidator for the purposes of such winding-up"

Back to the rest of series of adverts which include

1. Egyptian plover and the crocodile
2. Pilot fish
3. Ox-pecker
4. Prairie dog and burrowing owl
5. Hermit crab and the sea anemone

Egyptian Plover (also known as the Crocodile Bird)

There's a 13 second video of this cleaning process and a lovely video of the birds on YouTube

Pilot fish and shark

Pilot fish are described on Wikipedia as even been seen around the British Isles, which surprised me!

The Ox-Pecker and Rhinocerous

 

You can read about ox-peckers on Wikipedia. Paul Weeks outlines how the relationship between ox-peckers and the fact we believe they reduce tick numbers may actually be too simplistic.

Prairie Dog and Burrowing Owl

There is a lovely Native American myth around why the two animals live so happily together on the Internet Sacred Myths site, but the relationship is a lot more prosaic - a sharing of tunnels and safety together.

Hermit crab and Sea Anemone

As a child in Malta I often played with Hermit Crabs but never saw this relationship with an anemone which is fascinating. I've left this image to last as I wasn't certain it is Sheppard. The shell certainly looks like his work as does the hermit crab but then I wondered about the rest. The others are all signed but this one appeared not.

Until I asked Felicity Crentsil, the very kind Library Assistant at the Wellcome Library to check for me to see if she could see any signature which was cropped from the image. It's obvious she must be younger than me as she spotted the signature at the bottom left overlaid over the three limpet shells in a colour similar to their background and therefore not very legible. Thanks to Felicity (and her unnamed colleague!). As I always say, get to know your local librarians whether in a public library or work or academic library. They love helping, as do I! 

Thank you so much to the staff of Wellcome Library for sharing these wonderful images in the first place and for cataloguing minute detail so I could find them. If I sound like a over-thrilled 60 year old, you now know why!