After months of work from three Bungay groups to bring a nearly 80-year-old advertising poster to the town, it will be unveiled and displayed tonight.
Bungay Museum, the Bungay Society and Bungay Community Library joined forces to bid for the 1930s Shell advertising poster which featured the town’s Butter Cross, when it went under the hammer in London on June 4.
The poster, designed by artist Harold Steggles, was part of Shell’s Everywhere you Go campaign, a slogan appealing to a nation that longed for rural escape from the city and the delights of the British landscape.
The framed poster will be available to view at Bungay Library with an unveiling ceremony taking place tonight at 7.30pm by Lord Prior of Brampton, one of the founding patrons of the Friends of Bungay Community Library.
“Once I heard about the sale I felt we should try and purchase it, if at all possible, in order that we could bring it back to Bungay for the local community to enjoy” said Sylvia Knights a member of Bungay Town Council and trustee of Bungay Community Library who came up with the plan to buy the poster.
“We’re all delighted that we were able to secure an important piece of artwork which is part of our history and marks an iconic local landmark. I’m very pleased that everybody will now be able to come and see it.”
The groups used funds to bid £700 for the poster and with buyer’s premium and taxes, the total cost will be about £1,000 - with funds also raised by Mrs Knights during her year in office as mayor of Bungay in 2014/15.
It was among 42 Shell advertising posters, mostly from the 1930s, put up for sale by a former Shell marketing director.
Between the 1920s and 1950s, Shell commissioned artists to produce colourful, eye-catching posters and they included war artist Paul Nash and abstract painter Ben Nicholson, whose work is featured in the auction.
What are you thoughts on the return of the Bungay advertising poster? Email bbj.letters@archant.co.uk
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