Lady motorists in the 1930's were a rare commodity and those with accounts at Shell garages were nurtured! The tradition of sending the Shell Valentine card began in 1938 and continued right up until 1975, with 65,000 female customers receiving cards in 1950.
All the cards were sent anonymously, but the shell imagery, the motoring themes and the familiar Shell slogan rounding off the verse were all a bit of a give-away.
In 1964, Shell acquired 200 Victorian valentine cards from The Valentine Shop in the Strand, London. This collection now traces the history of the valentine, charting images of romance as well as satirical cartoons and cruel verse expressing loves lost.
the signature, Jensen, with a nod to Emett, had me wondering, who is Emett?
A fantastic artist by the name of Rowland Emett, was born in New Southgate, London, the son of a businessman and amateur inventor. His grandfather was Court Engraver to Queen Victoria, and Rowland went on to create wonderful amusing cartoons of machines, many of them featured trains and railways.
Nellie the steam train made her debut in the March 8th, 1944 issue of Punch, and a whole new world was created. The Branch Lines of Friars Crumbling radiated out to destinations such as Far Twittering, Buffers End, Long Suffering, Freezing in the Marrow and St. Torpid's Creek.
The cartoons became extremely popular and in 1950 Emett was approached by the organizers of the Festival of Britain with a view to creating a full-size passenger carrying version of his railway system.
Initially reluctant, he finally agreed and began creating the designs. Nellie was the first engine to emerge from the workshops. Two of his other trains (Neptune and Wild Goose) were also created for the renamed Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Lines. Nellie and the Far Tottering Railway carried over 2 million passengers at the 1951 Festival.
Putting aside his success at the Festival, what he described as his 'first big break' came in 1954 when he was commisioned to tour America for six months sketching his impressions of the country. He produced a 12 page colour spread in Life magazine (July 5, 1954 issue) entitled 'An Englishman's Answer to 'Yorktown'' and was paid the enormous sum, for the time, of $12,320 - which just happened to be the price of Wild Goose Cottage in Ditchling which is where he settled down at long last with his wife after years of moving from house to house.
In 1960 he was approached by Honeywell, the major American computer manufacturer, to build his interpretation of the 'computer'. At this time computers were rare and huge. They were also mainly contained in large anonymous metal cabinets. Not so Emett's. The 'Forget-Me-Not Computer' was used to promote their products turning the 'computer' into a memorable complex machine whose moving parts each described a process. At this time he also gained his only commission for an outdoor artwork; the mosaic on the side of the Marlowes car park in Hemel Hempstead. This still survives but the building that it is on doesn't look as if it will survive for much longer.
In 1968 the Ian Fleming book 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' was turned into a musical film and the 'phantasmagorical' mood of the film was enhanced by Emett's wizardry. He turned his hand to designing the car and a series of eccentric inventions for the character 'Caractacus Potts'. The props were duplicated for promotional purposes (about 37 were said to have been made) and a number of these still exist in collections around the world.
In 1970, work started on the Rhythmical Time Fountain, this machine with long spinning arms and four clock faces supported by a giant sunflower can still be seen in the Victoria Shopping Centre in Nottingham.
of course, you'll recognize the above as the steam engine that got revenge on a German fighter plane, and caused it to crash. I posted it a couple years ago
"Don't you think this three-dimensional business can go too far?"
the best video of the close up and through look at the machinery exhibit at the museum:
He also illustrated a book for Guinness, and did adverts for them
and Popular Mechanics did a multipage feature in 1960, The Weird and Wonderful World of Rowland Emett.
There are a couple books of his art on Amazon, But you might want to save a fortune and see if you library has any first. Ebay only has a lot of people thinking they have winning lotto ticket numbers
Home rails preferred
Sidings, and suchlike,
Emett's domain: Trains, trams, and Englishmen; the best of Rowland Emett by Frederick Rowland Emett
Alarms and Excursions and Other Transports
New World for Nellie
Emett's Ministry of Transport
From "Punch" to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
Engines, aunties & others: A book of curious happenings
Far Twittering;: Or, The annals of a branch line, being some interesting and unusual aspects of the Far Twittering and Oysterperch Railway
Make Your Own Scotch Whisky: The Diary of a Whisky Salesman
The Early Morning Milk Train: The Cream of Emett Railway Drawings by Rowland Emett
Rowland Emett BP Touring Service Guide 1959 Foreign Language Phrase Book
