Whose Land? Publicity booklet issued by the Underground Electric Railways of London & the London General Omnibus Company, nd [c1925?] - illustrated by Jessie M King : cover

One of the rarer of the publcity booklets issued by the advertising savvy London Underground Group (that after 1912 included the London General Omnibus Company) is this absolute gem; Whose Land? or some account of the original inhabitants of London. Its fifteen pages are covered in the trademark illustrations of one of the most influential Scottish artists of the early Twentieth Century, member of the Glasgow Girls, Jessie M King (1875 - 1949). It is superby produced and printed at the Baynard Press in London and is undated but, given the style of this and the depiction of buses, I'd say it is likely to be mid-1920s. the use of the "Traffic Advertising Agent" tends to be of this date and earlier and the address is given simply as "Broadway", not the "55 Broadway" expected after 1929.

 

The UERL Group, under the direction of the effective Publicity Manager Frank Pick, was at this time already noted as being amongst the most influential in terms of corporate brand and identity, and various such booklets on diverse subjects were produced but this is surely one of the finest if most esoteric of them all.

Done