Raymond Sheppard and Picture Post (Part Four)

International Artists present Raymond Sheppard

In the last three articles I've shown all Sheppard's illustrations accompanying stories, autobiographies, biographies and general articles. This time I'm concentrating on the last lot in Picture Post which is advertising. Now I don't want to give you the impression that these only appeared in Picture Post. They certainly didn't but here's a good as any place to include them for your pleasure!


The first one, of the ICI series, (I've written about ICI before) appears in the 12 December 1953 edition of Picture Post and is labelled "Buried Treasure", showing a cocker spaniel digging up a bone. The article talks about how the restriction on importing sulphuric acid from the USA lead to the home-grown solution taken from a rock called anhydrite. I wonder, is digging underground the connection between this issue and the cocker spaniel? The full text of the article is reproduced below for your interest.

Picture Post 12 December 1953 p.10

In Picture Post 3 April 1954 we see another of the ICI advertising columns which over that period had quite a few artists. "Waste not, want not" is the title of this one and talks about how a product created in one division of ICI may not be a total waste so all rejects are examined for alternate uses. I'm not sure why bees demonstrate this but the resultant image is gorgeous.

Picture Post 3 April 1954 p.10

Interestingly, the copywriters weren't very imaginative. I originally found the following in a copy of the Reader's Digest when clearing my late mother's house. Subsequently I saw the printer's proof that Christine Sheppard owned but also I've seen all three of these adverts in other magazines and papers all formatted differently - one column and two columns. The one below, although being the same text as the cocker spaniel above, has a terrier digging!

Reader's Digest January 1954 p112

Moving on to the other group of adverts that appeared - as far as I've tracked them so far! -The British Motor Corporation Limited. The company was formed in the early 1950s from a merger between Austin and Morris companies and at that time held nearly 40% of all British motor car production!

Picture Post 31 March 1956
"Getting through at 20 below"

In 1956 Sheppard produced three full page colour adverts for the company via the agency International Artists. On a tearsheet owned by Christine Sheppard, we see that the adverts appeared in a variety of magazines:

1. March 31 1956 Illustrated London News (13 x 9 inches)
2. March 22 1956 The Field (12 x 9 inches)
3. March 31 1956 Illustrated (12 x 9 inches)
4. March 31 1956 Picture Post (12 x 9 inches)

I also know it appeared in Country Life (29 March 1956). The adverts also ran on multiple weeks.

The above husky advert also appeared in a newspaper - here's the B&W version - I don't know which:

The second advert appeared in June 1956 and showed the elephant "Strength in the right place!" and appeared to my knowledge in the Illustrated London News (30 June 1956), Picture Post (16 June 1956) and Punch (6 June 1956)

Illustrated London News 30 June 1956
"Strength in the right place!"

And the third one drawn by Raymond Sheppard is of llamas with the caption "Roadholding is vital!". It certainly appeared in Illustrated London News (11 July 1956), Picture Post (14 and 28 July 1956)

Picture Post 14 July 1956
"Roadholding is vital!"

Finally I noticed when looking for other BMC adverts that the theme started earlier but was not illustrated by Sheppard (Picture Post 21 April 1956 "600,000 H.P. every week" shows a liner at sea)  and "Breeding comes out at extra speed" appeared showing a horse race - again not illustrated by Sheppard. I also found two 1960 adverts which are similar but not by Sheppard

Not a Sheppard illustration

Not a Sheppard illustration

Not a Sheppard illustration

There is another advert in the Picture Post which I'll save for another time