Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana "Company Of The Month" MOBIL

The "Company Of The Month" for May 2013 is MOBIL, which most of us felt would be the natural choice after last month's installment of SOCONY. Many thanks to Tom for hosting last month and to all whom contributed information and photos of their items for all of us to see. The following is a brief history of the company from Wikipedia, most of which was covered in Tom’s feature last month.

“Following the break-up of Standard Oil in 1911, the Standard Oil Company of New York, or Socony, was founded, along with 33 other successor companies. In 1920, the company registered the name "Mobiloil" as a trademark.
In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil to form Socony-Vacuum. The red Pegasus or "Flying Red Horse" was adopted as the company logo at this time. In 1933, Socony-Vacuum and Jersey Standard (which had oil production and refineries in Indonesia) merged their interests in the Far East into a 50–50 joint venture. Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or "Stanvac," operated in 50 countries, including East Africa, New Zealand and China, before it was dissolved in 1962.
In 1955, Socony-Vacuum was renamed Socony Mobil Oil Company. In 1963, it changed its trade name from "Mobilgas" to simply "Mobil," introducing a new logo (created by New York graphic design firm Chermayeff & Geismar). To celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1966, "Socony" was dropped from the corporate name.
Through the years, Mobil was among the largest sellers of gasoline and motor oils in the United States and even held the top spot during the 1940s and much of the 1950s. Various Mobil products during the Socony-Vacuum and Socony-Mobil years included Metro, Mobilgas and Mobilgas Special gasolines; Mobilfuel Diesel, Mobil-flame heating oil, Mobil Kerosine, Lubrite, Gargoyle, Mobiloil and Mobiloil Special motor oils; Mobilgrease, Mobillubrication, Mobil Upperlube, Mobil Freezone and Permazone antifreezes, Mobilfluid automatic transmission fluid, Mobil Premiere tires, Mobil Stop-Leak, Mobil Lustrecloth, among many others.
In 1962, the gasoline product lines marketed as Mobilgas and Mobilgas Special were rebranded as Mobil Regular and Mobil Premium in a move to emphasize the shortened brand name "Mobil" in promotional efforts although Mobiloil continued as a single word term until the 1970s. After a few years of advertising Mobil gasolines as "Megatane"-rated and as "High Energy" gasolines, Mobil began, in 1966, to promote both its Regular and Premium fuels as "Detergent Gasolines," due to the inclusion of additives designed to clean carburetors and various internal engine parts.”

I started collecting Mobil items around 2007. While I have no personal affiliation with the company, I had always been drawn the “The Flying Red Horse” logo, one of the most iconic trademarks in advertising history. I was told early on when I started collecting old gas items that I better pick a brand as the amount of items available would be overwhelming if you tried to collect them all. Well I’ll tell you, Mobil in itself produced enough items over the years that it seems like I’m always seeing items that I have never seen before, and I’ve been in the hobby for over 6 years now and search the internet several times a day to see what is out there. Mobil is not the brand for the collector who wants to have an example of every item the company ever produced, as I don’t think anyone could ever succeed!

While I have a pretty extensive Mobil collection to share, I would first like to have all of those willing to share photos of their items to go ahead and show us what you've got! That way everyone has an opportunity to post. I’ll start posting photos now and then as we proceed of items that have not yet been shown. Mobil is a very popular company and I’m sure almost every one of us has a Mobil item or two in our collections, so let’s see them!

I’ll start with one of my most recent additions, the very scarce Mobilheat Stove Oil globe, produced from 1955-1962.

Well here we go:

Early Mobiloil Painted tin Tacker sign:


Early 1930's Mobilgas Globe Green Letters 15":


Early 1930's Mobilgas Globe Blue Letters 13.5":


Different Mobil Marine and Outboard cans:


Mobil Marine and Aero can:


Gargoyle Filpruf Bottle:


Gargoyle cans:


Rarer Gargoyle Process can:

West Coast PPP:


Mobilgas PPP:


Mobilgas Central Region PPP:


Mobilgas Special PPP:


Keyhole Tin:


Lubrite Cans:


More Common cans:

Gargoyle Oil Bottle Rack

2 signs & a can..

This was used on the outside of the stations when the lift was outside to show the customers the lubrication points.

How did I know that globe would be included in the post Darin? Ha. Thanks for the info. Good stuff Darin and everyone that posted pics.

Brian

A few …..

One of the first gas and oil signs I ever purchased. Thinking the Texaco might have come from an overly aggressive Argentinian. : )

Here are my Mobil gas pumps

The Mobilfuel Diesel Special PPP posted above by Randy (advertologist) is the rarest of the rare pump plates. I've never seen one in person nor seen one for sale.


Richard

Gotta look past the clutter...sorry

Some more

more

What Clutter? You Mean Pure Treasures!

IMG_1187 by rbonitz2000, on Flickr


IMG_1343 by rbonitz2000, on Flickr

I agree with Richard, the Mobilfuel Diesel Special is a tough sign to find. I got this one from the Jeff Pederson auction about 10 years ago. Only second one I have seen counting Randy's.

1947 rotating pegasus on a 10 story water tower

Another hard to find pump plate.
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Only Mobil piece I own, USAC sanctioned the economy runs.


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Thanks to all who have posted some very nice items so far, let's keep them coming! I remember the first time I saw Randy post a photo of the Mobilfuel Diesel Special plate, which as a new collector I didn't even know existed at the time. Now that Bill posted his, as stated in the thread these are the only two I know of in collections. Like Richard said, the rarest of the rare! The kerosene and Mobil diesel plates are also extremely hard to find. Also shown on one of Matt Alvarez's pumps is the scarce black border Mobilfuel Diesel pump plate made for the West coast marketing territory of General Petroleum. I will be posting more photos soon, as well as more history of Socony Vacuum's subsidiary companies through the years. In the meantime, keep posting your Mobil items!

Here is a neat little small item:

This is the coolest Mobil piece I own.....

I would say that T- shirt is way kwell too ! Ed Shaver

Cool shirt!! And great stuff from all so far.

Here are most of my Mobil items:

I got this (you could say rare) white star map. It is rough, but I like it. And I don't have mobil patches... sadly.

Although I mainly collect Cities Service memorabilia, I seem to end up dragging a few choice pieces from other brands home with me! They will make good trading material when you Mobil guys find that special "Cities Service" piece that I might seem to need! LOL

1--30 inch DSP Mobilgas--used as a curb sign I believe
2--Gargoyle Gasoline sign--had a spot to post gas price
3--Mobiloil can rack--used to display cans at the pump
4--Gargoyle Lubester lid--cover for a bulk oil tank
5--MS70 pump with the Mobil plates it came with

the Mobiloil rack is cool..

Nice items Kevin!
To add on a bit to Noah's post of the 1934 White Star Mobil map, I had taken some photos for KYGULF a while back of my map collection, so since I had them ready I figured I would add them to the post now. All these maps are different in some way, either by size, date, or design. One of the most desirable Mobil related maps is the 1930 Vacuum Oil Co. graphic with the car, station, pumps, and attendant. All I have seen are for Pennsylvania, but I'm sure other states have to exist!



The next grouping are earlier maps, dating from 1933 to 1938. Some of the most collectible Mobil maps are those from the Wadhams division of Socony-Vacuum, as well as the earlier General Petroleum maps. In my opinion, some of the best Mobil items graphically were produced by the General Petroleum division, which encompassed the West Coast states. From maps, posters, to magazine and newspaper advertisements, General produced beautiful items in the pre-WW2 era.



The following grouping dates from 1938 to 1966. By 1946, (the predominately red background Michigan map) you will notice that the maps start following similar designs. By this point, Socony-Vacuum had instituted branding standards for all subsidiary companies, so companies such as Wadhams and General that had produced their own maps as a division of S-V had to conform to the same standards and no longer produced more "independent" marketing. You will still find maps during the 1940s and early 1950s that mention different divisions in the lower area, but the designs of the maps will all be the same. By 1956 all maps say "Socony Mobil Oil Company, Inc." as the company name had changed from Socony-Vacuum to Socony Mobil Oil Company in 1955. Starting about this time, Mobil was starting to phase out separating the Magnolia and General Petroleum subsidiaries which were the only two still operating from the earlier aquisition days. Both names would be phased out in 1960.



Shown in this last photo are some misc. maps, including Marine maps and other oddities. The rarest map in this photo is the Campbell Oil Company map of Chattanooga, TN. It's the only one I've ever seen. They were a distributor who used the Mobilgas branding very prominently on this local map, which I'm sure was to their advantage!
I hope I wasn't too wordy above, as I really enjoy giving the history on the items I own, which is important. Hopefully along the way we'll all learn something about Mobil we didn't know before! If you have any other maps not shown, go ahead and post them for others to see!
Darin

Wonderful stuff you guys !!!! Lets keep them coming . I am in the shop today and couldn't miss out on all the fun , you have seen her before but I gave Grandpa's pump a fresh coat of WD 40 and decided to join in .

Mobil Gargoyle oil can island rack. 40's or 30's?

your rack is from the 20s.

I guess I'll contribute. Here is one of my first pump restorations. Narrow body 60

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done up in two tone paint with automotive paint & clear coat gloss

very shining over restored, in the dinning room area.

And one more since nobody has showed this little bathroom plege sign

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Some Mobil smalls.

Dave

Mobil maps. To add to Darin comments;
Mobil-White Star Division maps for Michigan, Ohio & Indiana between 1933 & 1935 were made by W.S.McAlpine of Birmingham, MI. They are only oil company maps made by McAlpine that I know of.

Dave

Thanks to Dave for sharing some information on maps. I did not know about the early White Star maps being printed here in Michigan, which is pretty cool. By the way, I really like that White Star map on the right, I've never seen that version before!

First 2 pumps I restored when I started collecting.

Great job so far guys keep it going

White star double sided sign, measures between 3' and 4', marked IR-33

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Hard to find battery sign

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Nice Drop-leg Mike! And i like the blue outlined peggy!

Thanks!

Thanks to all who have posted. There have been some very nice items so far, so if you haven't shared your Mobil, please do so!
There are different variations of the Mobil restroom pledge shields to be found, including a black border west coast version and a couple blue border versions with slightly different wording. The later rectangle "locked" restroom sign does not show up nearly as often in my opinion. It's a heavy little sign for the size.

Mobiloil Special island rack, dated 2-54.

Can't forget the oilers


Grease cans and other smalls

Lubrication chart out of a Saturday Evening Post

A F Filpruf

a couple gargoyle items on a dusty shelf-
cleaning lady doesn't think I can see up there,
not until today..

Here's some of mine....Dale

One of two small silk banners that i found….

How about a working pump on a farm in NH? We watched the owner fill up his car with it.

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From a S.W.Iowa Mobil station--about 30 years ago.

One more Picture...Dale

Here's my small Mobil collection. Once again it seems like I'm forgetting something.

A couple more...

Some more nice items posted guys, let's keep them coming!
I had mentioned previously that the pre-WW2 advertising in the General Petroleum territory was, in my opinion, some of the best ever produced by Socony-Vacuum. Below are a few examples I have of posters and advertising from this era.
To start, a 1935 magazine advertisement. I think this is one attractive ad with great colors!



An eye catching 1936 poster illustrating General's use of clouds and speed lines which is a trademark of General advertising.....This poster was found in the attic of a bulk plant in Oregon.



And last, a General poster introducing the motoring public to the "new" Mobilgas Ethyl. This would date the poster to 1934.



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Here is another neat poster from Argentina. Although foreign, I thought it was pretty cool so I added it to the collection a few years ago. This was from a series of posters, with this one advertising the dangers of "enemy #1, carbon", and that you could protect your car using Mobiloil.

Next, I thought I would post some of the different globes that I have. I opened the COTM with my Mobilheat Stove Oil globe, a pretty scarce globe. I would say my only other scarce globe would be this 13.5" Mobilgas Ethyl globe, produced from 1934-1936. They do not come up for sale too often in this particular size, with the most plentiful being the 16.5" version.



Next up are two of the larger globes, the 16.5" Mobilgas and Mobilgas Special. These globes come in both black and blue lettering, like most all of the globes of these designs. In my case, the Mobilgas is black lettered, while the Special is blue.

The most common Mobil globes, and probably one of the most common in the hobby, are the 13.5" Mobilgas and Mobilgas Special globes. These are found with both blue and black lettering as mentioned before. The Hops or Scott B. can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the lettering color really affects value anymore. It used to be the black versions were more difficult to find, but I don't think it translates to adding a premium to the value of the globes anymore.
Black lettered Mobilgas....



Black lettered Mobilgas Special....



Blue lettered Mobilgas Special with original box. This was listed on Ebay as a reproduction at a very cheap buy it now. I don't know about you, but I don't think too many modern boxes are marked that they were shipped by the Railway Express Agency, lol!

Last in my globe installment are these three, the last of the globes produced by Mobil from 1962-1966, when this later flat shield logo was replaced with the modern MOBIL logo. I purchased the regular and the premium globes from Scott a couple years ago. They came directly from a source that had purchased the remaining inventory of the Cincinnati Advertising Products Company, or Capco after they had closed. The colors are a bit different from others you see, and they were never notched. It's anyone's guess if they are prototypes or unfinished seconds, but most you see will be the darker blue of the Mobilfuel Diesel version.

If you have any globes that are not posted, please share them as I know there are MANY others not shown yet, especially some of the rare ones.

Next up, I thought I would share some photos of my handy oilers. I know there are several I do not have, so if you have them, please add to this great COTM we have going this month!
I currently have 18 different versions, and as I said above, I know of several others I've seen but do not own. We'll start from the oldest ovals to the last one with the flat shield logo. You will notice in one of Randy's (Advertologist) photos previous an oval Gargoyle handy oiler, which is quite scarce! The focus of my collection is 1931 to 1966, the Pegasus years so I do not have many Gargoyle items.

Ooooops, I forgot a globe....can't forget the Metro! Metro was a small New York company purchased by Socony-Vacuum in 1934. Metro became the "cheap grade" gas sold in various territories until the mid-50's. Frequently in old pictures you will see three pumps, one for dispensing Mobilgas, Mobilgas Special, and Metro.

Since we were on the subject of handy oilers, I thought I would post this photo of an early cardboard display piece.

Sorry if I posted anything already posted

Very nice Paul, thanks for posting!

Thanks Darin. Good Job!

I don't have a whole lot of Mobil stuff. But this is one of my favorites.

One I use every day to drink coffee and read Old Gas every morning lol.

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Here is a In Car Mobil Garbage bag, instructions on the Bag say to hang it on a Dash Board or glove box nob.

Posting this photo for Richard, gatorgaspumps. A nice collection of Mobil patches!

A few Mobil items of mine.

15" METRO [complete]
15" SOCONY Milk Glass globe lens
2 dif. flags
Partnership wellhead lease sign

Early 1 gal can
Island Bottle Stand
Leather battery Clock
UN-cut sheet of Alum qts [misprinted/2nd]

Misc. signs on the wall

misc. signs & bottles..

Randy, KilleR General Sign,never seen that sign before!!

Really like that " General"
Thanks

Randy,
That General Sign is cool! What's the scoop on it? First one that i have seen. Thanks

Here is a Mobilgas Marine Service Sign 5'x3':

Aah she's a beauty captain!! (marine pun fully intended!)

Wow that is a cool sign!!

Just found this Mobiloil gargoyle valve today! It's rough, But it is what it is. Reads Mobil Oils on one side & Vacuum Oil Co on the other(can barely see it). Surface is pitted bad in different areas.

A couple of my mobil items:

The sign looks good Dan, glad you were able to secure the deal on it!
I bought this pair of chaps originally thinking they were probably made for a rodeo cowboy sponsored by Mobil in the 1940's/50's. I later found out they were more than likely made for the guy managing the Flying Red Horse children's ride that toured the country back at that time. It was one of those penny rides that "gallops" for a minute when you drop your coin, but looked like the Pegasus mascot. Either way, I thought they were really cool as I have a collection of old western stuff as well.

Here are some examples of banners. The Freezone ones are each slightly different and date to circa 1940. The Socony banner is earlier, dating from around 1935 with the "climatic control" mention. The Mobiloil can banner would date from the early 1940's. Last, the large 10' wide banner would date from the 1950's. While not in super shape, I found it at Peotone a couple years ago for $10 so I couldn't pass it up!
More to come later guys....

Great posts so far! Some great pieces have been shown so far!

A few Mobil globes. The Mobilgas/Mobilgas Special split globe is one of our favorites.

Will try to get some quart can photos posted in the next few days.

Thanks!

Lonnie & Aaron Hop

We have used Mobil products on the farm for decades and my Grandpa's brother drove delievery truck for the local Mobil distributor, so naturally a collection of Mobil stuff was "needed"! Great COTM so far!

Here is a group photo of some of our Mobil quarts.

Aaron Hop

1866: The Vacuum Oil Co. incorporated

1879: Standard Oil Co., headed by John D. Rockefeller, purchases a three-quarter interest in Vacuum

1870: Rockefeller and four partners organize Standard Oil Company in Ohio

1882: Rockefeller organizes his various oil holdings into the Standard Oil Trust, with headquarters in New York

1882: Standard Oil of New York formed

1911: Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) founded with dissolution of Standard Oil

1918: Socony purchases a 45% interest in Magnolia Petroleum Co.

1926: Socony purchases the properties of General Petroleum Corp. of California

1929: Vacuum acquires the Lubrite Refining Co., a refining and marketing company based in St. Louis
1930: Socony acquires White Eagle Oil & Refining Co.

1930: Vacuum acquires Wadhams Oil Corp., and the White Star Refining Co.

1931: Socony acquires all the assets of Vacuum Oil Co. and changes its name to Socony-Vacuum Corp.

1933: Socony-Vacuum and Standard of New Jersey merge their Far East facilities and interests into a 50-50 venture called Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or Stanvac

1934: Socony-Vacuum Corp. changes its name to Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc.

1947: Anglo-Iranian, Jersey and Socony sign 20-year contract with Iran

1948: Jersey (30%) and Socony-Vacuum (10%) join Socal (30%) and Texaco (30%) in Aramco venture

1954: Consortium of oil companies, including British Petroleum, Exxon, Socony, Texaco and Socal, Gulf, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and CFP form the Iranian Oil Participants Ltd. (IOP) and negotiate agreement with Iranian government and for oil production in Iran

1955: Socony-Vacuum changes name to Socony Mobil Oil Company

1959: Magnolia Petroleum and General Petroleum merged with other domestic subsidiaries into Socony Mobil Oil Company; Two major operating divisions created within the company: Mobil Oil Co. for the U.S. and Canada, and Mobil International Oil Co. for the rest of the world (except the areas in which Stanvac had interests)

1960: Mobil Chemical Co. formed

1960: Mobil Petroleum Co. Inc. formed to oversee Socony Mobil's 50% interest in Stanvac

1962: Assets of Stanvac split between Jersey and Socony Mobil

1966: Socony Mobil Oil Co. changes name to Mobil Oil Corporation. Mobil Oil Co. becomes the North American Division; Mobil International becomes the International Division, with coordinating responsibility for Mobil Petroleum Co. Inc.

1971: Mobil enters joint venture with Iranian Oil Company

1972: Mobil's 11.875% stake in Iraq Petroleum Company is nationalized

1975: Mobil increases its share of Aramco from 10% to 15%

1976: Mobil completes acquisition of Marcor, the holding company for Montgomery Ward Department Stores

1976: Mobil Corporation formed as holding company

1979: Mobil sells 51% of its Turkish refinery to Turkish Petroleum

1984: Mobil acquires 100% of Superior Oil

1985: Yanbu Petrochemical Company (YANPET), a joint venture petrochemicals complex at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia plant begins operation; Mobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) are 50-50 partners in YANPET

1996: The Qatargas project, in which Mobil has a 10% interest, comes on line producing first LNG from Qatar

1996: Mobil commissions two new plants in Yemen and Syria

1997: Second Qatargas liquefaction train completed

1998: Exxon and Mobil announce plans for merger.

Time to add a bit more and bring the Mobil COTM to the top! If you haven't posted your Mobil items please do so as the month is winding down, as hard as it is to believe.
To start things off, I thought I would show some of the products Mobil sold over the years dealing with car care. A lot of these items were made with petroleum by-products from the refining process. Instead of disposing of these as waste as they had in the past, they were developed in to sellable products available for purchase at your local Mobil station.
A couple of early products, Mobilwax for cars and a package of Mobil Utility Cloth for cars and furniture polishing. I'm still amazed I was able to find an unused package of this stuff 70 years later!


Mobilgloss car wax.....


Sovasuds Cleaner and Car Wash. All of these bottles are different versions, and I know of at least 2 more I do not have including the WW2 paper label version.


The metal windshield cleaner sprayer was used by the station attendants, but glass art deco version was sold in stations for home use. My Oct. 1941 product catalog retails these at .39 cents each, and the metal ones for attendants at .60 cents each. I took the NOS glass one out of the original packaging to take this photo.