I found only one ad by Shamir Brothers for a customer who sold to farmers: “S Mazal”, suppliers of fertilizers. It appeared d in ”Davar" of the 30s.

A few weeks ago, some time in November 2009, Eran Litvin sent me another Shamir ad relating to agriculture: for “Chili saltpeter”.

One Saturday, three weeks after I got the ad from Eran a thought occurred to me: maybe Shamir designed ads aimed specifically at the agricultural press? I remembered the monthly magazine "Ha-Sadeh" (The Field) - I've placed many ads of the Dead Sea Works and “Machteshim” in it when I worked for Bauer Advertising in the years 1960-64.

On Sunday I called the newspapers department of Beit Ariela ibrary and ordered the volumes of “Ha-Sadeh” from 1936-40. An hour later I received in the mail an article by my friend Amram Klein titled "Der Yiddisher Farmer" an agricultural journal in Yiddish that was published in the USA from 1908 to 1959.

I sat in Beit Ariela and flipped through the magazines. The first ad in the journal September 1937 was for “S Mazal” fertilizers. I said to myself: “I'm going to be lucky with this newspaper”. I was right. I found fifteen ads by Shamir, seven of which I never saw before.

I had to take pictures of these “new” ads using a digital camera because Beit Ariela prohibit photocopying or scanning bound pages.

On my way home I called Amram Klein, a graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture, and asked him if he knew of any collection of “Ha-Sadeh” journals that were not bound. He replied that at that very moment he was at the library of the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot. They have the “Ha-Sadeh” journals in bound format but have no issue with photocopying from them”. The conversation continued:

“When will you be in Rehovot again?” - I asked.

“I will not be” - answered Amram.

“Till when will you be there today?” - I continued

“Another hour and a quarter” - he replied

“Would you be willing to photocopy the Shamir ads from the journals?” - I said

“Gladly” - he replied

The next morning, Amram told me he found five of the seven ads and a Xerox copy should reach me by mail.

Two hours later I was at the Lavon Institute and asked if they had the “Ha-Sadeh”. They responded in the affirmative. I asked to see the years 1941-49. I found in them Shamir Brothers ads that were published in previous years. The new Shamir ads I found in the journals of those years were advertising various products and brands of Bejarano brothers. New ads for agriculture - were not found.

I decided to cease my search for ads for products for farmers (the terms used for “farmers” in those days were “peasants” or “villagers”).

Amram Klein recommended that I go back to Beit Ariela to look at the “Bustanai” (Orchard) weekly of the Farmers Association. In them I found 11 ads by Shamir between 1936 and 1939, the year the magazine closed down. All of these ads were also published in “Ha-Sadeh” or the daily newspapers.

In a 1937 issue of "Bustanai" I found a full-page ad designed by Shamir on the back cover of "for Westinghouse refrigerators. The ad showed a man and a woman walking "Each go his own way"/ The ad was published a year ago using an image of a 30s newspaper. It was used in the program for a theatre show about Hanna Rovina at the Cameri Theatre. I saw this ad for the first time a few months before the show – framed and on sale in the Palestina shop in Jaffa flea market. Now, at last, I've seen it four times bigger in high-quality print – exciting

Yoram Shamir  2009