Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Is It Genuine? - Shell Mex sign

This is my second attempt at message and image posting to the forum....
I
>hope it works!!
>I acquired this Shell sign a few years back and have wondered if it is
>genuine and, if so its value. It is approximately 22" x 14" and has
the
>mechanical horse being reigned in by two attendants while another
sprays
>gasoline in the horse's mouth from a Shell pump. The caption reads "
For
>the Utmost Horse Power"
>Your website is a great asset to the petro collector!!
>Thanks!

Hey modeltspeedster thanks for the post of this cool sign.....I would say reproduction but its new to me need to touch the sign for a better answer .........maybe sum other oldgasser has more info.
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seems weird that there are no gromets? How is the shelving?

The shelving is decent, although not heavy like from the teens & twenties. Here is a shot of the backside.

Modelspeedster,
Your sign looks like it is one of the "Posters" produced by Shell in Great Britain.
From the late 20's to the early 50's Shell used poster art for advertising. Many of the famous artists of the day did posters for Shell.
No mention in The Shell Poster Book of the "Shell-Mex.." pectin, however there is one poster with it in the corner and a green and red horse like the one on your sign. Date on that poster is 1926.
I think there are a couple of folks from Great Britain on the site, maybe they will check in and provide some more info.
At this point I would not discount it being original.

Ed

In the bottom tight hand corner, barely visible is the signature of the artist Jean d'Ylen.... who was a noted French artist if the 1920's who did advertising posters, etc. It is so faint that it does not show up in the photos very well.

There were signs that shell had made with this horse and guy combination. I remember one on ebay that was simalar but yellow in color.

Here is some of the UK artwork that you are referring to.

There is an original version of this sign, I've seen it on Ebay in the last few years bringing big $$. I believe the original may have different coloring and is larger.

To me, this looks like a smaller reproduction of a highly sought after foreign sign. Still worth a pretty penny I bet...cool sign.

Just my 2 cents.

Repro, original was bigger.
GPG

Here's a German version of the sign. I got the picture from www.route66store.ch in "collectors pictures 8". I am convinced that this sign is NOT a reproduction.
It is almost the same graphics but this is not British. Were there versions of this sign from different countries? Gary, have you seen any?
The British sign in this post appears to have a manufacturers mark that seem pretty new.
//Claes


[This message has been edited by fast66 (edited 04-28-2006).]

Can't say whether this one is repop or not but I did bid on a repop about a year ago on ebay. I believe it sold for about $45.