Thursday 16 September 2021

Raymond Sheppard and Regent Gold Vaporising Oil

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 8 August 1956 (Back cover)
Labrador and Golden Retriever
Raymond Sheppard drew many advertising illustrations and today I want to highlight a group that appeared in three issues (to my knowledge) of Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News in 1956 for Regent Gold Vaporising Oil and Regent Gas Oil. I'm out of my depth on oils, so please consult Wikipedia if you need to know more. The earliest advertising reference I could find to "Regent Gold Vaporising Oil" was 1953, which would after the time rationing was ending post-World War Two and the last mention in 1958 (or maybe 1959).

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News was an English weekly newspaper/magazine founded in 1874 and published in London that covered sporting and theatrical events. later its focus was on country life and farming, which links into the theme here. The changes in name are confusing and need to be mentioned here, particularly regarding the Raymond Sheppard issues. 

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 8 August 1956
BUT note the title in large print!

In 1945 there was a name change to Sport & Country, (later changing again to Farm and Country in 1957, before closing in 1970). But if you look at the covers you'll see evidence of the ISADN title being retained - a librarian's nightmare. So should we technically say these adverts appeared in Sport & Country? I suppose we should!

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 17 October 1956, p.2
Red Setter and Pointer
What inspired me to write about these is that Christine Sheppard's cuttings files only contain two of the three pairs of dog illustrations and the eBay seller Paul Keevil (canineartconnections), who also has a website showed the other pair. I wrote to Paul to ask for permission to use the illustrations here and he kindly replied:

Hi Norman,
These came to me as part of a 1950's scrapbook I bought.
There was a whole collection of dog images that had been cut out and pasted into the book.
I think there were 6 Dog images,So these are the original prints from the 1950's and not modern reprints.
I am a specialist dealer in Canine related art and I think this is the first time I have come across these images

So here for your enjoyment are the full set discovered so far!

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 28 November 1956, p.2
English and Welsh Springer

So here are the four Paul presented:


Labrador

Pointer

English Springer Spaniel

Welsh Springer Spaniel

To complete the set, you'll need the Golden Retriever and Red Setter - see above

Sheppard produced other advertising illustrations for Regent - which I'll cover at a later date

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