Original, antique, poster: You Can Be Sure of Shell, Magician’s Prefer Shell, designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1934. For this image (part of a series implying that everyone prefers Shell), Kauffer has deployed a cubist-inspired style to suggest the magician’s sleight of hand when preforming a trick.

Kauffer produced several posters for Shell Oil in the 1930s, which were displayed on the side of Shell lorries as part of a highly regarded publicity campaign. This copy belonged to the leading post war graphic designer Abram Games (more information here). A higher resolution image is available for viewing on request