Carless and Carless Movril 2 Gallon Petrol Cans

Pre war 2 gallon petrol cans for CARLESS, CAPEL & LEONARD whose origins go back to 1859 when Eugene Carless formed an oil refining and distilling business situated at Hope Works, Hackney Wick, London. He later entered into a partnership with George Capel but this was dissolved in 1872 after just 2 years. During this period the company had started selling a new product called "Petrol" - a solvent based product distilled from Petroleum. Their trade name of "Petrol" was always vigorously defended and this is how the alternative name of" Motor Spirit" came to be used by other companies.

If you can add to this site by sending in large format images of any 2 gallon cans not illustrated here then they would be greatly appreciated. Also appreciated would be any relevant company history as this would help to build a better understanding of the Vintage Garage and the companies involved. If you do send in images would you please email the largest possible size as this will help us to crop and re-size but to still maintain image quality and detail which is important. Also please include any relevant information such as dates etc and also whether you would like a photographic credit. Please click here for more details about submitting images.

Image Contributions

Your contributions are important and welcomed. Each image sent in helps to make the past a little bit clearer.

If sending images please send as large as possible as this helps with cropping and resizing whilst still maintaining a minimum quality of the original. Images between 1000 and 2000 pixels are preferred. Unfortunately we may not be able to use your image if it is too small.

We do not assume copyright of any image sent in but we do reserve the right to use any image to give the best use and effect for Vintage Garage, and to retain that use. We are pleased to give photo credits but some contributors prefer to remain anonymous. We will assume the latter unless you inform us otherwise.

If any images you send in are personal and you wish them to be marked to deter copying then please let us know and we will put a 'Protected' marker on them. This will not prevent copying but will make the image unviable accept for any personal use.

Where possible, please let us have any dates, makers names or model numbers or any other detail which will help to explain your images.

We take this opportunity of saying thanks to all those contributors who have given so generously in the past.