Catalogue entry · Lot 0034
Two large black wooden frames, glazed, holding more than forty motor racing stickers collected in the 1970s, from Hesketh’s teddy bear to an Iso-Marlboro Monaco 1974 decal from the team Frank Williams ran before Williams was Williams.
Background
In the 1970s the sticker was the motor racing fan’s social media. You queued at the trade stands, you begged at the paddock fence, and you went home with a fistful of sponsor decals that ended up on a school folder, a bedroom door or, if your parents were unlucky, the back window of the family Cortina. Most of them were peeled, faded or binned long ago.
These were not. The seller collected every one of them himself during the 1970s and had them professionally framed in the 1990s, which is why they now read less like a scrapbook and more like a sponsor map of the decade: tobacco, oil, petrol, hair care, crisps and, in one memorable case, the gospel.
The Iso-Marlboro one
The sticker to look for first is in the second frame. At a glance it is another red and white Marlboro decal of the kind you expect from 1974, when Marlboro Team Texaco and McLaren were on their way to the title. Look again. The car is the Iso-Marlboro, the name under which Frank Williams Racing Cars raced in 1973 and 1974, and the sticker is marked Monaco 1974. Arturo Merzario started that year’s Monaco Grand Prix in the Iso-Marlboro, and for 1975 the same cars were renamed Williams.
McLaren Marlboro stickers from the period are the common ones. The Iso-Marlboro version, from the team that came before Williams, turns up far less often, and it sits here alongside the Marlboro Team Texaco decals from Monaco and Brands Hatch 1974 and an earlier Marlboro BRM sticker, so you can follow Marlboro’s 1970s tour of the grid in one frame and a bit.
The lot
Two square black wooden frames with glass, each approximately 86 cm square (34 inches), with the stickers laid out on a grey mount. The reverse of each frame is backed and fitted with a hanging cord, ready for the wall. Both frames have been photographed front and back, with close-ups of the standout stickers.
Frame 1 includes Marlboro BRM; Brooke Bond Oxo / Rob Walker / Surtees; STP March; Yardley McLaren; Matchbox Team Surtees (F2); Embassy Racing with Graham Hill; Team Triplex, Colin Vandervell (Formula Atlantic); John Player Special Grand Prix; STP Indy 500 Winner; Elf Team Tyrrell; MultiGlide, Alan Jones (F3); Yardley Team BRM; Texaco World Champions 1972; Impact, Jody Scheckter, McLaren (F2); Castrol World Cup Rally 1970; Gurney Eagle (IndyCar); John Player Special Argentine Grand Prix 1973; Theodore Racing; McLaren Racing World Champions 1974; 24 Heures du Mans 1973; Texaco Team Lotus World Champions; ShellSPORT Radio Luxembourg (F5000); and Hesketh Racing.
Frame 2 includes Duckhams Q John Player Team Lotus; John Player Special; Marlboro Team Texaco; DTV (Dealer Team Vauxhall); Iso (Williams) Marlboro, Monaco 1974; Monaco Grand Prix 1974; Smiths Crisps Racing, Ensign, Dick Parsons (F3); Emerson Fittipaldi World Champion; Rothmans Motor Racing (F5000); John Player Grand Prix 1974; Marlboro Team Texaco, Monaco 1974; Bang & Olufsen Team Surtees; Wella Hair Care, Ted Wentz (Formula Atlantic); Marlboro Team Texaco, Brands Hatch 1974; Durex Lola, Richard Scott (F5000); Ambrozium Racing Team, Jacques Laffite (F2); David Kennedy, Shadow; Jesus Saves, Alex Ribeiro; Durex Surtees; Copersucar Fittipaldi; Indylantic ’76 (Formula Atlantic); Ligier Gitanes; Dicksons of Perth, Richard Scott, Modus (Formula Atlantic); and Netherton & Worth, Boxer, Brian Henton (F2).
Among the highlights: the gold-laurelled John Player Special “1st Argentine Grand Prix 1973”, marking Emerson Fittipaldi’s win in the season opener for Lotus; the McLaren Racing “Formula 1 World Champions 1974” shield from the year McLaren won its first drivers’ and constructors’ titles; the Embassy Racing with Graham Hill roundel from Hill’s own team; the Monaco 25–26 Mai 1974 sticker with its blue Elf Tyrrell; the John Player Grand Prix sticker for Brands Hatch, Saturday 20 July 1974, the British Grand Prix that Jody Scheckter won for Tyrrell; and Alex Ribeiro’s “Jesus Saves”, the one sponsor message on the grid offering salvation rather than a discount on engine oil.
Condition
The black wooden frames and the glass are in excellent condition. The stickers present well, with strong colour across the two panels, and a few show some fading, as you would expect from decals that have spent fifty years being looked at. The backs are clean and fitted with hanging cords.
Provenance notes (the honest bit)
Every sticker was collected by the seller himself during the 1970s, and the two panels were professionally framed for him in the 1990s.
This lot is offered under Opening Stint’s Premium Catalog seller attestation: the seller has confirmed in writing that the account given to us is true, and a summarised copy of that attestation goes with the item to the buyer.
Summary
Two frames, one decade, and the whole 1970s grid in sponsor form: Hunt’s teddy bear, Hill’s Embassy, Fittipaldi’s gold-laurelled JPS, plus the Iso-Marlboro sticker most people walk past thinking it says McLaren.
They will not fit on a school folder. They will fill a garage wall, a study or a man cave with more 1970s motor racing than most people manage in a lifetime of autojumbles.
Collection
Located in Berkshire, England, close to the M4. Because of their size and the glass, the panels are available for collection only.