SHELL

The cover design shown here was used from 1972, when the simplified Shell pecten was first introduced. By 1980 the atlas had over 300 pages of maps (although to make it easier to find sections travelling North-South, some page numbers were omitted so that page 8 was immediately North of page 18, etc.). Mairs/Shell do not print a grid onto each page, but instead use a clock face system to divide each page into 12 wedges; a clear plastic key can be placed over the page to help find towns (as shown right). The sections are numbered clockwise with 12 at the top - exactly as on a clock face.

After unification, the format was expanded slightly to permit a larger scale of 1:400,000 and the pages were numbered sequentially without gaps. Densely populated areas had enlarged scale maps at 1:200,000; conurbations were enlarged further at 1:100,000 in a much simpler style (right), and then - as before - there were street plans of the major cities. Much of Europe was covered at 1:750,000, with more outlying parts (including the UK, Spain and Scandinavia) at 1:1,500,000. These many overlapping maps meant that they took up 506 pages out of a stunning 881 pages in all.

Shell has however also published a second hardback atlas under either the Touring Atlas or Reiseatlas (travel atlas) name.

The 1982 Große Touring Atlas was rather larger in format than the Große Shell Atlas and its basic maps were at a 1:400,000 scale, with the Alps at 1:750,000 and 1:4,000,000 for the rest of Europe. It included 100 pages of Germany's most beautiful routes (Grüne Küsten-Strasse, right) as well as colour advertising pages for tourist communities and hotels.

By 1988 the name had changed to Shell Reiseatlas, and the beautiful routes had been replaced by a series of features of tourist areas including aerial panorama maps (such as of the Taunus, right). This atlas retained the colour advertising section, as well as a comprehensive register of communities.

The same partnership of Shell Deutschland and Mairs also created the Euroshell truckers' atlas. The 4th edition, from 1979, had almost 100 pages of European maps at 1:1,500,000. Unlike the versions for private motorists, these were overprinted with principal Shell sites and a list of Euroshell service stations was included. The 6 Euroshell locations in Valencia (Spain) are surprising as in 1979 they would have still sold fuel from the Spanish monopoly brand, Campsa. However, the map extract clearly shows Mairs' cartographic style, common to all the atlases on this page.

That the Shell atlases are substantial volumes can best be shown from the image here, which is taken of the five atlases described above. These atlases, which sold between DM12,80 in the 1950s and €29,50 now, as about as far as you can go away from the idea of a cheap giveaway oil company map, popularised in the USA.

1990 was the fortieth anniversary of Shell road atlases. In addition to normal editions, this version was produced for promotional use by Lord Cigarettes. It's worth noting that the Mairs (or Marco Polo, or EuroCart) names were completely left off the cover of this edition, showing how the Shell brand is seen as being more important in marketing the atlases. Despite the unusual cover, it was basically the same as the standard atlas inside.

Another version of the Shell atlas was produced for Peer cigarettes, also in 1990.

Shell greatly enhanced its market position in Germany by acquiring DEA in 2002. Although DEA had effectively abandoned its map programme a few years earlier, Shell produced a special cover edition of the Grosse Shell Atlas for 2003-4, to allow an appropriately branded version to be sold in DEA stations, seen here still in its shrink wrapping. This cover will remain unique as an example of a joint Shell/DEA map, for it was decided to phase out the DEA name by late autumn 2003. It is perhaps ironic that the "old" DEA logo, which is only rarely found on sheet maps, can also be found on a transitional map, but with Texaco from 1968, the first time the name was discontinued.

Photo courtesy Alexander Drews