Over 90 Years Old Still In Very Good Condition:
Original 1939 Pre WWII Shell-Mex Jerry Can With Original Brass Cap
LOT DESCRIPTION, PLEASE READ
Pre WWII British 2 gallon motor spirit cans served critical corporate branding roles on garage forecourts around the country and featured a highly distinctive livery.
Shell-Mex and BP Ltd was a joint marketing venture formed in 1932 between Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum.
This steel fuel can was produced in July 1939 by iconic British manufacturer Perry's just two months before Britain entered the Second World War in September 1939.
Perrys was not an oil or petrol provider, but rather an elite heavy gauge sheet metal engineering firm.
Pre-war they held major commercial fabrication contracts with dominant petroleum groups Shell-Mex, BP Ltd and Pratts Motor Spirit (later Esso).
Their stamping and soldering infrastructure allowed them to mass produce the rigid, air-tight 2-gallon steel cans required to safely transport highly volatile fuel to early roadside filling stations.
Perrys stood out amongst its contemporaries due to their products precision embossing and structural durability.
Unlike cheaper, generic cans, a pre-war Perrys can featured thick, deep set panel ribbing to prevent the metal from flexing or puncturing under pressure. Their cleanly molded, heavy-stamped base marks became an industry standard for commercial batch identification and tracking.
Because of Perrys' established, robust sheet metal fabrication facilities in Ealing, London, the British Ministry of Supply heavily relied on them immediately upon the outbreak of WWII in September 1939.
Perrys instantly pivoted away from civilian petrol cans to build vital military components for the war effort, including heavy-duty ammunition boxes, field gear and specialized military auxiliary transport canisters.
By August 1939 the British government had rationed fuel and dissolved individual brands into the Pool Petroleum Board.
Branded cans like Shell-Mex were phased out of production, making early peacetime civilian variants highly unusual.
Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939.
This can, stamped "7 39" (July 1939) by Perrys represents the end of the peacetime motoring era.
The date is verified by checking the underside of the can, where you can see the manufacturer's name Perrys alongside numbers indicating the month and year of production. There is some minor overpaint around the date.
The heavy, original Shell-Mex threaded brass cap embossed with the Shell-Mex script was frequently lost, stolen or replaced with a generic cap over the decades.
This rare complete original 1939 example with 2 gallon capacity, has been restored at various times during its 90 year lifetime to the original Jade Green Perrys colour and is still fitted with the original heavy Shell-Mex brass cap which is machine stamped M&B.
Meyers & Blum was a contracted industrial engineering firm that specialized in precision casting and thread cutting.
The M&B machine stamp is positioned neatly on one of the brass caps peripheral lugs to verify batch quality and fulfill component tracking standards for Shell-Mex and BP and is another mark of this jerry cans origins and authenticity.
CONDITION
Please see the many large photographs provided which are of the actual Shell-Mex jerry can you are buying.
As a survivor or WWII this original jerry can remains in very good condition with various visible signs of surface wear and tear, light corrosion / patina and discoloration with some visible chips mainly around seams and with some bumps and overpaint from its legacy of salvage and storage over the previous 90 years hence SOLD AS SEEN WITHOUT PROVENANCE but nevertheless an extremely rare early pre WWII artifact from Perrys for Shell Mex Ltd..
WARNING! MAY STILL CONTAIN TRACES OF PETROCHEMICAL RESIDUE!
Height: Approximately 28 cm
Width: Approximately 25 cm
Depth: Approximately 15 cm
Handle: Approximately 4cm tall with approximately 13cm long grip
Weight before shipping: Approximately 1.5 kilos.
PAYMENT, SHIPPING & INSURANCE
BUY IT NOW payment at checkout.
Securely consigned fully insured with eBay Buyer Protection PACKAGED AND PROTECTED in a reinforced mailer then shipped using tracked international service.
Any applicable import duty or VAT in your country is the buyers responsibility.
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My previous five UPS deliveries to my US CUSTOMERS arrived door to door in 4 days.
QUESTIONS
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