Welcome to this website giving details about motoring art and artists.
As new information is entered into the listings I hope to give a brief summary in this news section plus I will highlight spectacular results in auctions.
Added May 2009
Thanks to Ken Ball the dealer in motoring books, I have recently been able in inspect a run of The Motor magazine.Ken has a run from 1927 to 1939 which are bound with their colour front covers and are for sale.
Seeing these magazines confirms my view that The Motor did not allow their artists to sign the artwork hence it is difficult to determine who was responsible for each cover.This policy is in total contrast to The Autocar where the majority are signed by the artists.Probably this is also tied in with copyright.
From memory The Motor started using pictorial front covers in 1922/23 and the early covers I have seen in the period up to 1927 are also not artist signed. The exceptions are a couple of Shell advertisements in 1929 by Rowland Hilder, an MG cover of 25th December 1934 by de Grineau and several covers that have the small ‘n’ monogram of Will Nickless in 1933-36.No doubt the small ‘n’ slipped past the censor!
Many unsigned covers are in the distinctive style of de Grineau also works by Basebé, Carr, Connolly, Shuffrey and Steerwood can be attributed.
It would seem that the client in many cases kept the same artist for a series of adverts, e.g. Nickless doing the artwork for Redline Petrol also adverts were often in a distinctive client house style e.g. Ford adverts.
I thought it unusual that from the run I cannot remember seeing any of the original artwork.
The opportunity to see the magazines was much appreciated as far fewer runs of The Motor with covers have survived in comparison to The Autocar.
Also thanks to Harold Hofton’s daughter I have been able to update details on this interesting artist. Alongside is one of his cover designs for a book cover.
Added March 2009
Thanks to the efforts of Don Grant I have been able to revise the Artist's listings of Don's father Gregor Grant, Don and the details of technical artist Theo Page. Gregor Grant trained and worked as an artist for magazines, such as Light Car before becoming better known for founding Autosport magazine. Don is a current eminent artist/designer having initially produced motoring art. Theo Page is best remembered as Autosport's technical artist.
Illustration Sports Car Cavalcade 1946 for Light Car magazine by Gregor Grant
Added February 2009
The last Transport Collectors Sale in October 2008 of the Barrie Blight collection, contained relatively little original art. However, there was a real wealth of printed art used for sales literature, posters and magazine covers. Peter Card has recently sent me copies of some of the images used in the catalogue. The art in the sale was principally 1920's and 1930's by such names as Carr, Shuffrey, de Grineau, Connolly and Steerwood. One name I have not come across before was Gadsby Thorpe who produced a sales brochure for a Morris subsiduary Isis Coachcraft. Michael Reilly was an artist previously in the listing but I did not appreciate that he had produced Morris brochure art of commercial vehicles. Many thanks to Peter I have been able to add some more images in the Artist Listing pages.
This image alongside is of Leslie Carr artwork used for the 1926 Morris Cars sales brochure. Carr produced several pieces of excellent artwork for Morris around this time. Image courtesy of Transport Collectors Auctions Ltd.
Added January 2009
I had the opportunity last week to visit Barrie Pook's shop in Rothley with the vast stock of automobilia. One of the reasons for the visit was to view the 1920's front cover art of The Motor magazine. I did not realise that none or very little of the artwork is signed by the artist. This must have been the magazine's policy, in complete contrast to The Autocar. If anybody has 1920's (or 30's) Motor covers that are signed I would be interested to hear from them. However, several other items caught my eye, particularly this 1919 Sunbeam advertisement cover of the Field by an artist with initials ECF. If anybody knows the full name of the artist I would love to know? Also thanks to Barrie I have been able to add more images to the Artists Listing for Henry Basebe and Septimus Scott. Plus added new artists Webster and David Tayler.
Added December 2008
Sorry for the delay in updating this News item. This was due principally to my inability to add new information to the website. Changes had been made by the web designer to the skeleton on which I build the site. This meant that I could make no additions, however I could make changes to existing entries. These changes/corrections have been an ongoing process and special thanks are due Peter Heilbron and Robin Barraclough for supplying information.
Possibly the most interesting work of motoring art to come on the market was this linocut by Cyril Edward Power entitled 'SPEED TRIAL' and shows strong influences of Campbell's Bluebird. This was completed circa 1932 and was a unique experimental proof. This was auctioned by Bonhams in their December sale , where it realised £27 600. There was also a similar example printed in red which had a successful bid of £9 200.
Image courtesy of Bonhams Auctions
Added 19th June 2008
It is some time since the last news as I have been busy with holiday, garden and writing a couple of articles for the Automobile Fine Arts Society in the USA.
The most interesting find was communicated to me by Rutger Booy of www.prewarcar.com. This concerns the UK artwork of Bernd Reuters the German artist. He achieved his main fame with the VW brochure art just after the Second War but he produced earlier art for UK car companies and it is claimed he never travelled abroad! Read about him and see more art in the Artists Listing.
In addition I have either added information or made changes to George Bishop, Leonard Clow, S C H Davis, R M Ellis, Walkden Fisher, H C Lovell, Frederic Nevin, Will Nickless, Saunderson, Reginald Shuffrey, A S Waye and Walter Wright.
Added 4th May 2008
Thanks to Malcolm Jeal I have been able to add to the details of early artists particularly those that worked for The Car-Illustrated magazine. I have made changes to the Artists Listings for Tom Browne, Oswald H Cuningham, Philip Dadd, Ferdinand Fissi, GIL, Basil Head, Charles Ince, G H Jalland, Joseph Lee, H Radcliffe-Wilson, G E Shepheard, George E Studdy and Charles Sykes.
Philip Dadd - Iris car leaving the Palace of Westminster 1907.
Added 17th April 2008
Have made changes to the following P R Buchanan (THE TOUT), Eric Frazer, A F Greenaway, Peter Miller, Alex Oxley and Basil Smith (BASIL) plus added another artist A F Simpson. A small archive of Simpson's art was recent sold and it included some pre-1920 motoring work.
Added 7th April 2008
During a recent trip to the USA I had the opportunity to spend some time going through the library of Tom Brierley who has an excellent collection of early illustrated books. This has resulted in a major revision where I have added or revised the artists listing for the following:- D Andrews, Prince Bira, Geo Blow, D F Campbell, L Carr, S J Cash, A Chidley, Brian Cook, Gordon Davies, Roland Davies, E Drigin, Gayler Laurie, GES, Raymond Groves, P B HIckling, Hofton, Norman Keene, Guy Lipscombe, CEM, Thomas Maybank, H R Millar, Reginals Mills, Will Nickless, T E North, S E Porter, Reginald A Shuffrey, Ellis Silas, Stevens, John Wall, R Wenban, W F Wightman.
There is some great motoring art in these books of the 1920's and 30's!
Thanks Tom for your help!
Added 31 March 2008
Here is the excellent dust cover design by Colin Grimes for the book OXFORD TO ABINGDON by Robin Barraclough and Phil Jennings published by Myrtle Publishing 1998. With the authors' permission I have been able to use illustrations and update the Leslie Grimes and Harold Connolly details. I have also added W F Burrows and Colin Grimes in the Artists Listing.
Added 20 March 2008
Changes made in Artists Listing to John Appleyard, John Blatchley, Donald McGill and Stuart Spencer.
Added 13 March 2008
I have made updates/corrections or added illustrations to the Artist Listing of Cecil Aldin, Leslie Carr, Edmund Fuller, Reginald Shuffrey, Richard Wheatland, Bernard Wragg and Michael Wright. Thanks to everybody who supplied information.
Added 11 March 2008
See entry for 25 January. Thanks to Tom Clarke we are now able to indentify this signature as Wackrill. Tom found in the Times newspaper in the 1920's references to an Edith Wackrill also an art critic H R Wackrill. Which member of the Wackrill family painted the Rolls-Royce advertisement we are not sure.
Added 20 February 2008
Who is CFB The Motor artist of this 1926 art of the Segrave Sunbeam V-12? Some slight similarities to the work of Bryan de Grineau who was the staff artist of The Motor. A further thought is that de Grineau's original surname was Bryan, did he have any relatives?
Added 14 February 2008
Thanks to Michael Ware I have been able to upate information on Claude Tipper. Roland Emett and David Weston plus forwarding this image by Evan Jones of the front of the 1924 Powell and Hanmer catalogue. Peter Card was able to advise that it seems Jones worked for P & H from about 1904 to 1925.
Added 2 February 2008
Who was the first motoring artist? See the artists listing - A Johnson for details of a very early motoring artist! There are two images of early veteran cars and are painted very much in the style that the gentry would have a portrait of their favourite horse!
Added 2 February 2008
Herewith a cartoon by Richard Glegg used by The Autocar in 1941. This is just one of the pages I have updated in the Artists Listing. The following have new images R Barratt Granger, Frank Davies, Barnett Freedman, Richard Glegg, Joseph Pike, Tim Slade, William Ross Wardle, Starr Wood and Rex Whistler.
I have also added new artists pages for A Brown, Gary Coole, Leonard Holloway, A Johnson, Arnold Lerner, Minoux, J Milner and Van Der Heyden.
Added 30 January 2008
For some reason I missed Harold Connolly out of the Artists Listing which is surprising as I have just written an article about him for The Automobile. See the listing for details about this very important motoring artist.
Added 25 January 2008
Here is an image sent in by a reader asking the question - who is the artist? The image is a Rolls-Royce advertisement in The Motor from 9th April 1918. At first glance the signature looks like Wacknill but it could start with E v? Also the the k could be a capital C. Grateful if somebody could help but I am fairly sure the artist is not on my list.
Added 21 January 2008
Although not by a UK artist a recent high was the price paid for a ceramic piece in Bonhams pre-Christmas sale on the 3 December 2007 at Olympia.This glazed terracotta figure of an early motorist entitled ‘Lighting Up Time’ realised £24 000 plus premiums.It was truly a spectacular figure standing some 80 cm high, by an Austrian artist Hamiroff for the Goldscheider factory circa 1905.It was claimed by Bonhams that this design was an unrecorded factory piece so the high price is perhaps not surprising.Talk is that the purchaser is a motoring enthusiast so it was bought for it’s motoring art rather than the pottery scarcity.
Image courtesy of Bonhams
Motoring Art was established in 1995 and is a publication of my lifetime hobby.
