Raymond Sheppard Illustrator

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

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!

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.