St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com www.chrisbeetles.com
ISBN 978-1-914906-15-2
Cataloguing in publication data is available from the British Library
A Chris Beetles Gallery Publication
With contributions by Chris Beetles, Alexander Beetles, Phoebe Bowsher, Fiona Nickerson and David Wootton
Edited by Alexander Beetles, Fiona Nickerson and Pascale Oakley-Birch
Design by Pascale Oakley-Birch
Photography by Alper Goldenberg and Giulio Sheaves
Reproduction by www.cast2create.com
Colour separation and printing by Geoff Neal Litho Limited
Front cover: Warwick Goble, The Peony Lantern [37 ]
Front endpaper: Roy Gerrard, In the Daisies [185 ]
This page:
Edmund Dulac, Cherry Blossom (detail) [83 ]
Title page: Ed McLachlan, Seagull ID Parade (detail) [297 ]
Back endpaper: Paul Cox, Paris Olympics 2024 [272 ]
Back cover: Jonathan Cusick, King Charles III (detail) [356 ]
CHRIS BEETLES GALLERY
1. Georgia , Rege cy & Victoria Illustrators & Cartoo ists
1 GEORGIAN, REGENCY & VICTORIAN
ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS
ROBERT DIGHTON
Robert Dighton (1751-1814)
The portrait artist, Robert Dighton, made a distinctive contribution to the art of the caricature, and founded a dynasty of caricaturists, who worked late into the nineteenth century. An actor and singer, as well as artist, he is credited with creating the genre of coloured prints of actors in their favourite roles.
For a biography of Robert Dighton, please refer to The Illustrators, 2014, pages 6-8.
Further reading:
Timothy Clayton, ‘Dighton, Robert (1751-1814)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 16, pages 175-179;
David Padbury, A View of Dighton’s. The Dighton family, their times, caricatures and portraits , London: Cartoon Museum, 2007;
Dennis Rose, ‘Dighton’, Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art , London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 8, page 886;
Dennis Rose, Life, Times and Recorded Works of Robert Dighton (1752-1814). Actor, Artist and Printseller and Three of His Artist Sons , Tisbury: Element Books, 1981
PRESS GANG AND FELLOWS
Following the death of the artist, John Collet, in 1780, Robert Dighton began to supply caricatures to Carington Bowles, the printseller based at St Paul’s Churchyard, and these continued to appear, as mezzotints, until the early 1790s. In 1793, Dighton brought out his rst Collection of Portraits of Public Characters. They proved so successful that he focussed increasingly on caricature and, in the following year, moved to 12 Charing Cross Road to open his own shop. After the turn of the century, he moved to 6 Charing Cross Road, and he retained a shop there until at least 1810. It is likely that the present drawing was drawn for reproduction as a print during the period of his career when he was based at Charing Cross. The image of a young man being hauled away from a tearful lover by a press-gang is one that Robert Dighton turned to a number of times during his career. One such image, titled The Banks of the Shannon, was produced as a print by Carington Bowles in 1799.
1
A PRESS GANG AT CHARING CROSS
Watercolour
12 9 ½ INCHES
Provenance: Allan Cuthbertson Collection; Luke Gertler Collection
Literature: David Padbury, A View of Dighton’s , London: Cartoon Museum, 2007, page 84
Exhibited: ‘Christmas Exhibition 1965’, J S Maas & Co., London, no 54
1. Georgian, Regency & Victorian Illustrators &
JAMES GILLRAY
James Gillray (1756-1815)
Having developed the skills of draughtsman and engraver, James Gillray established himself as the rst professional caricaturist in Britain, and dominated the eld. Breaking free of the rigid symbolic language of amateur caricaturists, he employed his rich imagination, and exaggerated the features of his targets, to powerful political ends.
James Gillray was born in Chelsea, which was then in the county of Middlesex, on 13 August 1756. He was the only surviving child of a disabled Scottish ex-soldier who joined the extreme protestant sect of the Moravian Brethren, and became sexton of its burial ground in Chelsea. In 1762, at the age of ve, Gillray was sent to the Moravian school in Bedford, but returned to his parents two years later, when the school was closed for nancial reasons. It is uncertain what further general education, if any, he received, but he certainly developed a talent for drawing while still young. By 1770, he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, the writing engraver and publisher, based at Russell Court, Covent Garden. However, he soon became bored and left ‘to join a company of strolling players’ (as reported by a German journalist in 1798, and quoted by Anita McConnell and Simon Heneage in their entry on Gillray in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, page 298).
By 1775, Gillray had returned to London, and was engraving satirical prints for the publisher, William Humphrey, who was then based at Gerrard Street, Soho. Those that he designed as well as engraved, were greatly in uenced by the work of John Hamilton Mortimer. His work as an engraver enabled him to support himself through his studies at the Royal Academy Schools, which he entered in 1778. He is likely to have attended the lectures of the engraver, Francesco Bartolozzi, and may also have received some lessons from the pioneering stipple engraver, William Wynne Ryland. While producing a range of illustrations, miniature portraits and reproductive engravings during this period, he developed his own distinctive style of caricatures, and over the next six years gradually established his reputation as the leading caricaturist in Britain.
During the 1780s, Gillray focussed on English party politics, attacking both the Whigs and the Tories, and also members of the royal family, including George, the Prince of Wales. Of the three great stipple engravings that he produced in 1792, A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion caricatures the results of the Prince of Wales’ debauchery in a particularly explicit way.
Regarding his attitude to international a airs, Gillray was initially pleased when the ancien régime fell in France in 1789. However, he altered his opinion as events turned more bloodthirsty, and produced some horri c satires of the revolutionaries, including Un Petit Souper à la Parisienne (1792), in which Sans Culottes are shown dining on the remains of their enemies. The rise of Napoleon inspired a further group of incisive caricatures, including
The Plum Pudding in Danger (1805), in which Napoleon and the Tory leader, William Pitt, divide a globe-like pudding between them. Having attacked the response of the Whig Opposition to the revolution, he accepted a pension from Pitt in 1797.
Alongside the political subjects, Gillray produced a large number of social caricatures, often based on designs or ideas by such amateur artists as the Rev Brownlow North, the Rev John Sneyd and Charles Lorraine Smith. Before the mid 1780s, Robert Wilkinson, of 58 Cornhill, published many of Gillray’s caricatures while, after that date, they were issued by Samuel Fores, of 3 Piccadilly, and signi cantly by Hannah Humphrey, of 51 New Bond Street. The younger sister of William Humphrey, Hannah became his sole publisher in 1791, and his landlady from 1793, by which time she had moved to 18 Old Bond Street. She continued to o er him steady support, and he would move with her to 37 New Bond Street in 1794, and then 27 St James’s Street in 1797.
A decade later, in 1807, his physical and mental health began to decline. Exhibiting signs of insanity in 1810, he attempted to commit suicide in the following year. Eventually, he died on 1 June 1815, in his room above Mrs Humphrey’s shop in St James’s Street, and was buried at St James’s Church, Piccadilly.
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Library, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and Tate; and the Library of Congress (Washington DC).
LORDLY ELE ATION
Published on 6 January 1802, James Gillray’s Lordly Elevation marked the succession of Sholto Henry Maclellan (1771-1827) to the title of Baron Kirkcudbright, on the death of his father on 24 December 1801. In so doing, it mocked the vanity and foppery that Maclellan is said to have exhibited despite being ‘short in stature and somewhat deformed in person’ (The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1827, page 562).
Lord Kirkcudbright stands at his dressing table, perched on top of an immense baron’s coronet which serves as a foot-stool, regarding himself in a draped mirror. The unfortunate Lord Kirkcudbright was born a hunchback and had succeeded to his baronetcy only two weeks earlier on the death of his father. Although deformed, the bottle of elnos syrup on his dressing table – a popular remedy for venereal disease – and the strategically placed hilt of his sword suggest that he is excited by his future prospects with the opposite sex.
The original drawing for this print was exhibited in ‘The Long Nineteenth Century: Treasures and Pleasures’, Chris Beetles Gallery, London, March-April 2014, no 21.
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LORDLY ELE ATION
Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘Jan 6 1802’ in plate Hand coloured etching 11 8 ¾ INCHES
Published by Hannah Humphrey, 6 January 1802
THOMAS ROWLANDSON
Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827)
Thomas Rowlandson raised comic art to a new level by representing the panorama of contemporary life with almost unparalleled uency – adopting lyricism or incisiveness as best tted the subject. And, in capturing an abundance of picturesque detail, his work provided a parallel to the novels of Henry Fielding or Laurence Sterne.
For a biography of Thomas Rowlandson, please refer to The Illustrators, 2014, page 10.
Special thanks to Nicholas Knowles for his assistance in compiling these notes.
WHEN LAMBERT WALKS THE STREETS, THE PA IOR'S CRY, GOD BLESS YO MASTER, THEN LAY THEIR RAMMERS BY!!!
The present drawing refers to a man called Daniel Lambert, who became a celebrity in the early 1800s due to his enormous size. A Leicester-born gaoler as a young man, poverty forced Lambert to travel to London in 1806 to exhibit himself to paying visitors. His warm personality and intelligence saw him quickly become a celebrated and popular member of London society, and visiting him at his rooms on Piccadilly became a highly fashionable activity. He welcomed hundreds of visitors and became very wealthy, before he became tired of being on show and returned to Leicester. Between 1806 and 1809 he embarked on short tours around the country. In June 1809 he was weighed at Huntingdon and was found to weigh 52 stone 11lb. He passed away a few days later in his bed at an inn in Stamford at the age of 39.
It seems highly likely that Thomas Rowlandson visited Daniel Lambert during his time in London. In May 1806, Rowlandson produced an etching, published by Rudolph Ackermann, titled Daniel Lambert, the wonderful great Pumpkin of Little Britannia, depicting Daniel Lambert being brought a large joint of meat, while two men struggle to measure his waistline.
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WHEN LAMBERT WALKS THE STREETS, THE PA IOR’S CRY, GOD BLESS YO MASTER, THEN LAY THEIR RAMMERS BY!!!
Inscribed with title in border Ink and watercolour
7 9 ¾ INCHES
THE GAMESTERS
The fashion of the gamblers and style of the present drawing suggests it was likely produced in the late 1780s to early 1790s, a period when Thomas Rowlandson was gambling away his inheritance. Rowlandson produced a number of drawings and prints of the debauched and chaotic gambling dens that he frequented. The more quiet and mannered gamblers depicted here hints at this drawing likely being set in a gentleman’s club, such as Brooks. 4
THE LO E LETTER
A version of this drawing appeared as a wood engraving titled Credulity in W H Harrison’s The Humourist, a Companion for the Christmas Fireside (1831), almost 25 years after the present drawing was produced and four years after Rowlandson’s death. In the image, a young woman reads an illicit love letter at a Finishing School for Girls, while the messenger stands behind her.
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THE LO E LETTER
Signed and dated 1807 Watercolour and ink 11 ¼ 8 ¾ INCHES
PORTSMO TH POINT
H NGRY DOGS WILL EAT
DIRTY P DDING
A version of the present drawing was published by Thomas Tegg in March 1812 under the title Sea Stores (Grego, vol II, page 403). The etched version is very similar in composition and features the same two prostitutes. Sea Stores was a companion to Land Stores, an etching that depicts an elderly military o cer embracing a vast, black prostitute. Another version of the present drawing was published as an etching in 1815, titled Jack Tar Admiring the Fairer Sex
The title, Portsmouth Point, is the name of an old district of Portsmouth, also known during this period as ‘Spice Island’ due to its particularly seedy reputation. By the 18th century, Portsmouth Point had become a popular destination for sailors on leave from ships moored in nearby Spithead. As a result it developed a reputation for lewd and raucous behaviour and was comprised mainly of pubs and brothels. In 1814 a Thomas Rowlandson etching with the title Portsmouth Point was published, depicting widespread drunkenness and debauchery along the harbourside.
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PORTSMO TH POINT
H NGRY DOGS WILL EAT DIRTY P DDING
Signed, inscribed with title and indistinctly dated Ink and watercolour
11 ¼ 8 ½ INCHES
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DR SYNTA AT A H NT DINNER
Ink and watercolour
5 ¾ 9 ¼ INCHES
Drawn for but not illustrated in William Combe, The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax. In Search of Consolation , London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1820
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ST
JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
Watercolour
7 ¼ 9 ¾ INCHES
ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
Though there was often a degree of artistic licence in Thomas Rowlandson’s many topographical views, this view of the ‘Kitchen Bridge’ at St John’s College, Cambridge, is a fairly accurate depiction of the scene, made from the direction of the Trinity Bridge. Rowlandson produced a number of drawings of scenes in Cambridge. Between 1809 and 1810, Rudolf Ackermann published a series of twelve satirical prints of Oxford and Cambridge, though the background for these prints was typically taken from other prints by other artists. It is likely that Rowlandson produced this drawing on the spot. The boat in the foreground can be seen carrying freight, at a time when the Cam was an important transport route. The sails of the boat can be seen to be lowered in order to pass under the low bridges of the colleges.
ABOARD THE DOLPHIN PACKET
There are at least two other versions of the present drawing, one of which, in the collections of the Yale Center for British Art, is dated 1791. This date makes it highly likely that the current drawing was produced while Thomas Rowlandson crossed the Channel with his friend and patron, Matthew Mitchell, on a Dutch packet-boat en route to a sketching tour in the Lowlands and Germany. The inscription on the sail identi es the ship as The Dolphin Packet, a mail-carrying ferry that ran between the east coast of England and the Netherlands. The boat and Captain Flynn were captured by a Dutch privateer during the 4th Anglo-Dutch War in 1781-84. This incident was referenced in 1791 by John Adams, one of the American Founding Fathers, in a letter to Thomas Barclay, an American diplomat.
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ABOARD THE DOLPHIN PACKET
Signed and inscribed ‘Dutch Packet’ on reverse Ink with watercolour 7 ½ 11 INCHES
SOLDIERS MARCHING
10 SOLDIERS MARCHING
Ink and watercolour
7 9 ¼ INCHES
This drawing was reproduced as part of a series of etchings by the German Heinrich Joseph Schütz and published by Rudolph Ackermann in 1798. Other etchings in the series include Soldiers Cooking, Soldiers Recreating and Soldiers Attacking
JOHN LEECH
John Leech (1817-1864)
John Leech was a uent and incisive draughtsman, who had great success as a cartoonist for Punch and as a literary illustrator, especially of John Surtees’ sporting subjects.
For a biography of John Leech, please refer to The Illustrators, 2012, page 15. 11 THE RISING GENERATION
J ENILE : I WONDER WHETHER THAT G RL HAS ANY TIN – FOR I FEEL MOST OWDACIO SLY INCLINED TO GO AND C T THAT FELLOW O T Pencil
7 ¼ 7 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , vol 12, 1847, page 112
‘In his tastes and habits he was by nature aristocratic; he liked the society of those who were well dressed, well bred and re ned like himself, and perhaps a tri e conventional; he conformed quite spontaneously and without e ort to the upper-class British ideal of his time, and had its likes and dislikes. But his strongest predilections of all are common to the British race; his love of home, his love of sport, his love of the horse and the hound – especially his love of the pretty woman – the pretty woman of the normal, wholesome English type.’
George Du Maurier, Social and Pictorial Satire, 1898, pages 36-37
George Du Maurier succeeded John Leech at Punch in 1864 as the cartoonist observer of fashionable High Life.
The drawing as it appeared in Punch, 1847
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POT COMPANIONS
Inscribed with title Ink and watercolour
5 ½ 4 INCHES
J
Appearing in Punch in 1844, the present drawing is likely to have coincided with Queen ictoria and Prince Albert’s visit to Blair Castle in September of that year. ictoria and Albert rst visited Scotland together in 1842 and returned in 1844, staying at Blair Castle, near the village of Blair Atholl for three weeks.
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J ST KILTED – A SCENE AT BLAIR ATHOLL
6 ½ 7 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , vol 7, 1844, page 153
ST KILTED – A SCENE AT BLAIR ATHOLL
Pencil
The drawing as it appeared in Punch, 1844
HARRISON WEIR
Harrison William Weir (1824-1906)
Harrison Weir was one of the leading illustrators of the ictorian era and an in uential member of London’s literary society. He especially found success and popularity as an illustrator of birds and other animals, particularly cats. A lover of animals and devotee of their welfare, he originated the rst ever Cat Show at the Crystal Palace, London, and became known as ‘The Father of the Cat Fancy’.
Harrison William Weir was born on 5 May 1824 in Lewes, Sussex. He was the second son of John Weir, a bank manager and later an administration clerk in the legacy duty o ce at Somerset House, London, and his wife Elizabeth (neé Jenner). He began his education at Albany Academy in Camberwell, but after showing early pro ciency in drawing was withdrawn in 1837 and articled for seven years to the printer, George Baxter, who had grown a popular and successful business reproducing paintings in colour using oil inks on a succession of wooden or metal relief blocks. Here, Harrison Weir learned a wide range of skills and techniques, working mainly on printing o the plates but also learning how to draw on the woodblock for the engraver. In his spare time, he devoted himself to drawing and painting, with a particular interest in birds and animals. In 1842, when Herbert Ingram founded the Illustrated London News, Harrison Weir broke his indentures with Baxter to join him there, working as a draughtsman and engraver from the rst issue. In 1845, he exhibited The Dead Shot, an oil painting of a wild duck, at the Royal Institution. He also began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, Society of British Artists and other London venues from this time. He was elected a member of the New Watercolour Society in 1849 and would show over 100 artworks in its exhibitions over the course of his career. On 29 October 1845, he married Anne, the eldest daughter of the painter John Frederick Herring. He would marry a further two times in his life, to Alice (neé pjohn) and Eva Emma (neé Goble). He would have two sons and two daughters.
Harrison Weir found the greatest success during his career as a proli c and popular illustrator of books and periodicals. In addition to his work for the Illustrated London News, his work appeared in many other illustrated papers, such as Pictorial Times, The Field and Pictorial World. He was the chief illustrator for Charles St John’s Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands (1846) and produced illustrations for many books on natural history by Sarah Bowdich Lee. Some of his nest illustrations appeared in the Reverend J G Wood’s Illustrated Natural History (1853). He designed all the illustrations for George Fyler Townsend’s Three Hundred Æesop’s Fables (1867), and the same year compiled his own anthology with The Poetry of Nature. He was both author and illustrator of Every Day in the Country (1883) and Animal Studies, Old and New (1885). In addition to his work as an illustrator, Harrison Weir was also
employed for over thirty years by the silversmith Garrard & Co to design trophies for various race meetings, such as Goodwood and Ascot.
Harrison Weir’s love of animals and devotion to their welfare was central to his life and career. He wrote and illustrated Our Cats and All About Them in 1869 and in 1871 originated the rst organised Cat Show, which was held at the Crystal Palace in London on 13 July of that year, drawing over 20,000 spectators. Harrison Weir served as a judge at the event, as did his brother, John Jenner Weir, himself a well-known entomologist and ornithologist. Weir founded the National Cat Club in 1887, serving as its rst President and Show Manager. He was also an experienced poultry breeder and judge. He designed colour plates for W Wing eld and G W Johnson’s The Poultry Book (1856) and wrote his own book on the subject, Our Poultry and All About Them, in 1903.
Though he lived much of his life in Peckham, London, Harrison Weir spent his later years in Kent, rst in Sevenoaks, and then in Appledore, where he died on 3 January 1906, at the age of 81.
Harrison Weir, 1891
The artwork as published in Routledge’s Picture Gift-Book, 1866
14
THE THREE LITTLE KITTENS, WITHO T THEIR MITTENS, RAN SCREAMING O T SO HIGH, OH DEAR! OH DEAR!
DINNER-TIME’S NEAR, AND WE MAYN’T HA E O R PIE
Signed and dated 1865 Ink
8 ¾ 8 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection Illustrated: Routledge’s Picture Gift-Book , London: George Routledge and Sons, 1866, ‘The Three Kittens’, [unpaginated]
GEORGE DU MAURIER
George Louis Palmella Busson Du Maurier (1834-1896)
Equally talented as artist and writer, George Du Maurier developed a cartoon format for Punch that balanced text and image in order to record and satirise the fashions and foibles of society.
For a biography of George Du Maurier, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 23.
Further reading:
Leonée Ormond, ‘Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson (1834-1896)’, in H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 17, pages 177-180;
Leonée Ormond, George Du Maurier , London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969; Leonée Ormond, ‘Du Maurier, George (Louis Palmella Busson) (b Paris, 6 March 1834; d London, 8 Oct 1896)’, in Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art , London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 9, page 384 15
A MEDICAL OPINION
EMINENT PHYSICIAN : I FEEL ERY Q EER ?.. I WONDER WHAT CAN BE THE MATTER ?
AN IO S WIFE : SHALL I SEND FOR DOCTOR PILCO OR DOCTOR SQ ILLS ?
E P : NO - NO !
A W : OR ANY OTHER DOCTOR ?
E P : NO - THEY ’ RE ALL S CH H MB GS !
Signed twice, inscribed with title, further inscribed and dated ‘Nov 1885’ Ink
7 ½ 4 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 13 February 1886, page 76
Exhibited: ‘Channel Packet: Paris-London 1880-1920’, Fine Art Society, London, April 1969, no 27
I vould like to ‘ang zem all! You see ze Duchesse of Pentonville? ell, last night, ven she vas presented to me, she vas of a politeness ze most exquisite!
– And zis morning I go for to say to her ‘Good day!’ and she turn me simply ze back!
Brown: Did you – a happen to mention to Her Grace last night that you would like to hang all the Sacrés Aristocrates?
Monsieur T B: Ma foi, oui, mon ami! Pourquoi pas?
17 (below)
MORE LOST ILL SIONS
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 9 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 11 November 1882, page 222
Agatha Goldmore is introduced to young Poultbury, who talks to her of art and culture. ‘Why’, thinks Agatha, ‘He looks like a Greek God even in his every-day clothes! What must he be when he’s playing Lawn-Tennis!’
Next day she has an opportunity to judging, for she meets him again at Mrs Matcham’s, in Highgate. Once more he talks to her of art and culture‚ – but alas, poor Agatha! The spell is broken, for ever!
BREAKFAST AT BONNEBO CHE HALL
A SO THERLY WIND AND A CLO DY SKY –
PROCLAIM A H NTING MORNING !
Signed and inscribed with title
7 10 INCHES
WALTER CRANE
Walter Crane, RWS RI ROI (1845-1915)
Though he considered himself primarily as a painter, Walter Crane was a wide-ranging artist and theorist who, allied to the Arts and Crafts Movement, developed as a signi cant and in uential designer and illustrator. His groundbreaking ‘toy books’ of the 1860s and 1870s, printed by Edmund Evans, increasingly emulated the at colour and asymmetrical compositions of fashionable Japanese prints. Later, William Morris employed Crane to work for the Kelmscott Press, and encouraged him to turn to Socialism.
Walter Crane was born in Liverpool on 15 August 1845, the son of the portrait painter, Thomas Crane. He grew up in Torquay and London. At the early age of 13 he made a set of coloured designs to Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott that were seen by the wood-engraver, William James Linton. He was so impressed that he took Crane on a three-year apprenticeship (1859-62), and not only gave him a thorough grounding in theory and practice of illustration but encouraged his interest in politics. He also studied at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art. In 1863, he met Edmund Evans, the pioneer of colour printing, and they soon began to produce the long series of cheap children’s picture books that made Crane’s name, beginning with The ‘House That Jack Built’ Alphabet (1865). From 1867, he also worked for the Dalziels, for Once a Week and Fun. His illustrative work in general would help to establish the Aesthetic Style of the 1870s and 1880s.
Meanwhile, inspired by Burne-Jones’s exhibits at the Old Water-Colour Society, Crane began to show paintings at the Dudley Gallery (and subsequently at many other venues, including the Fine Art Society and the Leicester Galleries). He met Burne-Jones and William Morris in 1871, the latter further stimulating his interest in politics. In the September of that year he married and set out with his wife for an extended honeymoon in Italy (the rst of many travels), returning in 1873 and settling in Shepherd’s Bush. (Crane and his family would move to Holland Street, Kensington, two decades later.) While he continued to paint and exhibit, maintaining that his painting was his rst love, he made his greatest mark as a proli c and versatile designer; he undertook important decorative schemes for George Howard, Frederic Leighton, Alexander Ionides and the American heiress, Catherine Wolfe.
Crane identi ed closely with the growing Socialist movement, and joined Morris’s Socialist League shortly after its establishment in 1884. In the same year he became a member of the Fabian Society, and for the rest of his life he often placed his versatile talents at the service of the Socialist cause. He was also much involved with art education, being Examiner in Design to the Board of Education for London County Council and the Scottish Board of Education; Director of Design at Manchester School of Art (1893-96); Director of the Art Department of Reading niversity (1898); Principal of the Royal College of Art (1898-99).
Ever willing to help raise the public pro le of art, Crane was founder and rst master of the Art Workers Guild (1884) and rst President of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society (1888-93, and again in 1896-1912). His memberships of the other exhibiting societies included the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (1882-86, resigning to join the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours), ARWS (1888), RWS (1899), the Royal Institute of Painters in Oils (1893) and the Society of Painters in Tempera (as a founder in 1901).
His many and in uential publications include Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New (1896), The Bases of Design (1898) and Line and Form (1900). He also published An Artist’s Reminiscences (1907). He had an international success as both designer and painter, and his later paintings – at, stylised and symbolic – appealed in particular to German collectors. In 1902, his contribution to Turin’s decorative art show, in which he was assisted by Robert Anning Bell, led to his being made a Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy by King ictor Emmanuel. He died at Horsham Cottage Hospital, Sussex, on 14 March 1915.
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the &A; Manchester Art Gallery; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums; the Musée du Louvre (Paris); and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA).
Further reading:
Alan Crawford, ‘Crane, Walter (1845-1915)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 13, pages 996-998;
Christopher Newall, ‘Crane, Walter (b Liverpool, 15 Aug 1845; d Horsham, W Sussex, 14 March 1915)’, Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art , London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 8, pages 121-122;
Gregory Smith and Sarah Hyde, Walter Crane: Designer and Socialist , London: Lund Humphries/Manchester: Whitworth Art Gallery, 1989; Isobel Spencer, Walter Crane , London: Studio Vista, 1975
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SIR GALAHAD IS BRO GHT TO THE CO RT OF KING ARTH R
Signed with monogram and inscribed with title Watercolour with ink 10 7 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Henry Gilbert, The Knights of the Round Table , London & Edinburgh: TC & EC Jack, 1911, facing page 112
THE ROSEB D AND OTHER TALES
The author, Arthur Maitland Kelly (born 1874), was the son of the Rev Maitland Kelly, Rector of Plympton St Maurice, Devon, and descended from the Kelly family, Lifton, in the same county. Educated at Winchester and Oxford, he lived variously in London and Devon, and spent time as a magistrate for the latter. He wrote two volumes of original fairy stories about familiar objects, which were published by Charles North: The Lump of Coal (1905) and The Soap Bubbles and Other Tales (1906).
Two years later, Kelly commissioned Walter Crane to illustrate a new [extended] edition of these stories as The Rosebud and Other Tales, published by T Fisher nwin in 1909. Of the 21 drawings produced by Crane, 20 appeared in the book. For the rst time in Crane’s career, they were reproduced with photographic colour half-tone printing. Isobel Spencer states that,
‘These show him beginning to take advantage of the subtle e ects the process a orded by the bright colour and strong design, plus the way they are mounted on dark paper, ensures they do not detract from the uni ed concept of the whole book.’ (Spencer 1975, page 139)
The Scotsman described it as ‘a volume that few young children will be able to resist’ and The Ladies’ Field as ‘a beautifully-bound treasure house of delight for the child who is fortunate enough to possess it’.
‘The Lawn Tennis Ball’ is a fable with the motto: ‘A sorrow’s crown of sorrows is remembering happier things’. A conceited tennis ball has his moment in the limelight when two boys choose to use him for a game.
As he ies through the air, he mocks a caterpillar crawling on the ground. However, the boys soon lose him, and he spends a wet summer in the garden. Late in the season, he is visited by the Admiral butter y who, proud to ‘command the aerial navies of the fairy king’, vaguely remembers being mocked by the tennis ball in an earlier life.
THE BOYS TOOK P THEIR RACQ ETS, READY FOR THE FRAY
THEY SEARCHED LONG AND DILIGENTLY, B T THE TENNIS BALL WAS NOT TO BE FO ND
Signed with monogram
Ink and watercolour with bodycolour
8 ½ 6 ½ INCHES
Drawn for but not illustrated in Arthur Kelly, The Rosebud and Other Tales
KATE GREENAWAY
Kate Greenaway, RI (1846-1901)
The characteristic charm of Kate Greenaway’s illustrations resides in a simplicity of both vision and visual style. A past time – the Regency –is represented through clear outline and at wash as the embodiment of innocence; an eternal English spring is peopled, for the most part, by graceful youths engaged in gentle occupation.
For a biography of Kate Greenaway, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 28.
Further reading:
Rodney Engen, Kate Greenaway: A Biography, London: Macdonald, 1981; Rosemary Mitchell, ‘Greenaway, Catherine [Kate] (1846-1901)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 23, pages 549-553; Emma M Routh, ‘Greenaway, Kate (b Hoxton, London, 17 March 1846; d Hampstead, London, 6 Nov 1901), Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art , London: Macmillan, 1996, vol 13, page 615;
M H Spielmann and G S Layard, Kate Greenaway , London: Adam and Charles Black, 1905 24
LEARNING TO WALK
Signed with initials Ink and watercolour
4 ¾ 5 ½ INCHES
Exhibited: ‘The Golden Age of Children’s Book Illustration’, Nunnington Hall, Yorkshire, July-September 2006; ‘The Illustrators’, The Brook Gallery, Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, September 2010
25
DANCING GIRL
Pencil
3 ¾ 2 ¾ INCHES
Literature: Frontispiece to: M H Spielmann and G S Layard, Kate Greenaway , London: Adam and Charles Black, 1905, Limited Edition De Luxe, Signed and Numbered 450/500 by John Greenaway, ‘Her Only Brother and Life-Long Companion’
26
A DAY IN A CHILD’S LIFE
Watercolour
2 ¾ 4 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection Illustrated: Myles Birket Foster, A Day in a Child’s Life , London: George Routledge & Sons, 1881, page 28
2. Va ity fair
2
VANITY FAIR
In October and November 2023, Chris Beetles Gallery presented Portraits of Vanity Fair: The Charles Sigety Collection, a major exhibition of over 100 portraits in ink and watercolour of prominent politicians, statesmen, artists, musicians and royalty, published in the society journal Vanity Fair between 1870 and 1911.
This private collection was put together by a single American collector with the assistance of Chris Beetles Gallery over the course of many decades.
The exhibition was accompanied by a 218-page fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue.
For an essay on Vanity Fair, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, pages 38 & 39.
SPY
Sir Leslie Ward, RP (1851-1922), known as ‘Spy’
for almost 40 years, Sir Leslie Ward de ned the look of the society paper, Vanity Fair. His well observed, meticulously conceived cartoons permanently altered the art of caricature in England. From the cruel and often grotesque caricatures made popular by the likes of Gillray and Daumier, Leslie Ward made caricature acceptable and, indeed, necessary to the who’s who of ictorian high society.
For a biography of Spy, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, pages 44-46.
Further reading:
Peter Mellini, ‘Ward, Sir Leslie [pseud. Spy] (1851-1922)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 57, pages 325-326; Leslie Ward, Forty Years of ‘Spy’ , London: Chatto & Windus, 1915
Leslie Ward, 1921
SIR GEORGE FA DEL-PHILLIPS
Born in 1840, the second son of Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips, a wealthy Jewish merchant. He was educated at niversity College School London and completed his studies in Berlin and Paris before entering his father’s business. In 1867, he married Helen Levy, daughter of the owner and editor of the Daily Telegraph, Joseph Moses Levy. He served as Sheri of London and Middlesex from 1884-1885 and succeeded his father as Alderman of the ward of Farringdon Within, in 1888. In 1894, he became a governor of the Honorable Irish Society.
In 1896, he became Lord Mayor of the City of London and as such was the City’s Chief Magistrate for Queen ictoria’s Diamond Jubilee the following year, receiving the Queen at Temple Bar and subsequently at Mansion House. During his year as Lord Mayor, he raised totals exceeding £1 million for the relief of the famine in India and other charitable causes. When he was created a baronet, he received the Grand Cross of the Indian Empire for recognition to his services to India. He died in Hertfordshire on 28 December 1922.
SIR GEORGE FA DEL-PHILLIPS
Signed
Watercolour and bodycolour on tinted paper 11 6 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Vanity Fair , 10 June 1897, Men of the Day no 683, ‘Mansion House’
SIR GEORGE FA DEL-PHILLIPS, ‘MANSION HO SE’
‘The Right Honourable George Faudel Faudel-Phillips became the second son of Sir Benjamin Phillips, of Brighton, seven-and- fty years ago; since when he has consistently developed faculties and taken opportunities that have together made of him the First Magistrate in the City of London: as his father was before him. He began to acquire wisdom at University College School; he added to it in Berlin and Paris; and he has ever since been improving himself. Thirteen years ago he was Sheri of London and Middlesex; then he succeeded his father as Alderman of the Ward of Farringdon Within; and last year he became Lord Mayor just in time to hold that high O ce for the Diamond Jubilee. He is also Governor of the Honourable Irish Society, High Sheri of London, Governor of three hospitals, Chairman of a Special Committee of the Corporation of London, Member of the Hertfordshire County Council and Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire, President of the Jewish Orphan Asylum, and many other things. He has the Second Class Order of the Osmanieh and the Second Class Order of the Lion and Sun of Persia; he is a Knight of the Servian Order of Tirckova, and he is an O cer of the Order of Leopold. He has houses in London and Brighton, and a happy place in Hertfordshire. He is a clever, ambitious, energetic man who is equal to every occasion; and he owes much of his success to his clear judgment, his imperturbable temper, and his readiness of speech. An excellent magistrate, he is also a keen sportsman who can stop a rocketer or a driven partridge as neatly as he can oor an impostor. Altogether he is a versatile fellow, a hard worker who believes in doing a thing well, an excellent husband, and a stout friend. He is a good Lord Mayor, and the best part of the City is proud of him; while Society, though he is a Lord Mayor, quite likes him. He cycles, rides, and drives; yet he is so devoted to books that he revels in a magni cent library.’
Vanity Fair, 10 June 1897
APE
Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), known as ‘Ape’
Alongside his colleague Leslie Ward (who took the pen name ‘Spy’), Carlo Pellegrini de ned the look of the ictorian society journal, Vanity Fair. Inspired by the work of Melchiorre Delifco and Honoré Daumier, his caricatures, produced under the pen name ‘Ape’, had an enduring e ect on ictorian high society as a whole. So did Pellegrini himself, as the eccentric Neapolitan caricaturist became known as one of London society’s most well-known and well-loved gures.
For a biography of Ape, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 40.
Further reading:
Maria Cristina Chiusa, ‘Pellegrini, Carlo (b Carrara, Nov 22, 1605; d Carrara, 1649), Grove Art Online, 2003, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T066088; Peter Mellini, ‘Pellegrini, Carlo [peud. Ape] (1839-1889)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/21806; Leslie Ward, Forty Years of ‘Spy’ , London: Chatto & Windus, 1915
28
REAR ADMIRAL LORD JOHN HAY
Signed
Watercolour and bodycolour
12 7 INCHES
Illustrated: Vanity Fair , 23 October 1875, Men of the Day no 113, ‘An Admiral’
LORD JOHN HAY
John Hay was born in Geneva, Switzerland on 23 August 1827, the fourth son of George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale and Lady Susan Montagu. He joined the Royal Navy in 1940 at the age of 12. At 14 he saw action during the First Opium War and by 19 had been promoted to Lieutenant. He was promoted to Commander on 28 August 1851 and a year later was given command of HMS Wasp in the Mediterranean. He took part in the defence of Eupatoria in November 1854 and the Siege of Sevastopol the following Spring, where he was wounded. In recognition for his services in the Crimea, he was promoted to Captain and was given command of HMS Forth
John Hay entered politics as Whig MP for Wick from 1857 to 1859, when he resigned to take command of HMS Odin during the Second Opium War. He returned to politics as MP for Ripon in April 1866 and served as Civil Lord of the Admiralty until the fall of the Liberal government in June 1866. Between December 1868 and February 1871 he served as Junior Naval Lord. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in May 1872 and became Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron in November 1877. He was promoted to ice-Admiral in December 1877 and was sent to the Mediterranean the following July to take control of Cyprus. In April 1880, he became Second Naval Lord, before being named Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in February 1883. In July 1884, he was promoted to full Admiral. He was made First Naval Lord in March 1886, but had to stand down just ve months later when the Liberals fell from power. He was made Admiral of the Fleet, the highest rank of the Royal Navy, on 15 December 1888 and served until his retirement in August 1892. He died in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire on 4 May 1916.
REAR-ADMIRAL LORD JOHN HAY, C B
‘A younger son of the Lord Tweeddale whose exploits in the French wars are matters of history, Lord John has spent his life from childhood in the active service of his country. At eleven he was already at sea in his uncle's ship on the coast of Spain, and the next year he joined the Navy formally. After this he had the luck to be always found wherever ghting was going on. At fteen he had won a medal in a war with China, and at nineteen he was made Lieutenant, and went to Glasgow to study shipbuilding and the new inventions of steam. Soon after he was sent in command of the Wasp to put down piracy in the Archipelago, which he did very e ectually, and at the outbreak of the Russian war he was despatched to the eastern shores of the Black Sea. At the siege of Sebastopol he landed with the whole of his ship’s company to join the Naval Brigade, and throughout the severe trials of the siege he was incessantly in the trenches, where indeed he received a severe wound. It was at this time that Lord Lyons mentioned him in despatches in admiration of his ‘valuable services and inspiriting bearing,’ and that he was for his services promoted to the rank of Captain.
The war over, he began to think of politics as a career, and being a Liberal by Party, he in 1857 contested Wick, and beating Mr Samuel Laing, obtained a seat in the Commons, which two years later he resigned to take command of the Odin in another Chinese war. Here he led a division of gunboats in the attack on the Peiho forts, fought in the battle of Palikao, and went into Pekin with Lord Elgin, when by the merest chance the allied armies had barely escaped a disaster, and their commanders had been hustled into an advance instead of a retreat. In 1862 he was the Commodore of the Indian Station, as which he distinguished himself by training an elephant to work on board ship and to drink grog; while three years later he volunteered on a forlorn hope to contest Belfast, where he was, however, handsomely beaten by Lord Cairns. In 1866, nevertheless, he was returned for Ripon, and was at once taken into Lord Russell's Government as a Lord of the Admiralty, a post which he has held in two Liberal Administrations. Three years ago he was made a Rear-Admiral, and he is now second in command of the Channel Fleet, as which he has distinguished himself for his professional ability, not less than for the admirable manner in which he conducted the Vanguard Court-martial.
Lord John is in truth a very able man in various ways. A rst-rate naval commander, he is also a politician of much judgment, and an o cial of complete reliability. Besides which he is full of information, always in good health and spirits, and both in mind and body a remarkably vigorous and youthful young man of eight-and-forty.’
Vanity Fair, 23 October 1875
3. Phil May
3
PHIL MAY
PHIL MAY
Philip William May, RI RP NEAC (1864-1903)
Sometimes referred to as the ‘grandfather of British illustration’, Phil May was one of the most in uential black-and-white artists of his generation. Earthy, street-wise, and redolent of the music hall, he was both King and Court Jester of Bohemia, and his work is the antithesis of that of Aubrey Beardsley.
For a biography of Phil May, please refer to The Illustrators, 1996, pages 148-149.
“If a man’s bad, I can tell you why he’s bad; but when he’s as good as Phil May, I can’t tell you why he’s good, because if I could, I could do just what he’s doing, and I can’t. All I can say is, that his work is just sticky with human interest, and that’s all there is about it!”
Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944)
At the turn of the 1890s, Phil May was a penniless young artist in need of work, who had recently returned to London from Australia. Fortuitously, the majority of British magazines were seeking talented new draughtsmen, for innovative methods of photomechanical reproduction had made possible an increased number of drawn illustrations. May renewed a connection with the St Stephen’s Review and, in 1890, began to illustrate its comic serial ‘The Parson and the Painter’. This account of metropolitan social events as seen by a country parson made his name almost overnight. The drawings by May that subsequently appeared in Punch and other periodicals, and in the artist’s own annuals, soon epitomised the essential modernity of popular illustration. Even now, they seem to comprise a direct yet selective representation of city life, at once spontaneous and economical. They construct an a ectionate caricature of the working-class streets, honouring the resilience of the inhabitants, while minimising their more threatening characteristics. Thus they relate most closely to the music-hall song or monologue rather than any purely visual medium. May himself personi ed the ‘knut’, a ashy man about town often portrayed by music-hall artistes. He dressed in an exaggerated version of the style admired by cockney ’arries, which included, as an essential item, a loud suit of black and white check. The costume was ideal for a gure whom James McNeill Whistler considered the summation of ‘black and white art’.
In the catalogue to the May exhibition, 1895, this letter from Whistler was printed:
‘The exhibition you are going to have will certainly be most interesting, and I wish I could see it: for I take a great delight in Phil May. Certainly his work interests me far more than that of any man since Charles Keene, from whom he is quite distinct. There is a brightness and daintiness in what he does, combined with knowledge. These, together with the fact that in his drawings the wit is the artist’s, make a vast di erence between him and his contemporaries.’
(Phil May Folio, 1904)
O R MR WINKLE
Inspired by Hablot Knight Browne’s illustration of Mr Pickwick on the ice in from the 1837 edition of Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, the present cartoon comments on the perceived state of the Liberal Party in 1885. With the personi cation of Britain, John Bull, as Mr Pickwick, the hapless Mr Winkle, who is falling on the ice, is represented by the Prime Minister, William Gladstone. In The Pickwick Papers, the chaotic scene results in Mr Pickwick falling through the ice. Phil May indicates that the actions of the Liberal Party may cause a similar metaphorical fate to befall the country.
In addition to William Gladstone, several other signi cant political gures are present. In the foreground, President of the Board of Trade, Joseph Chamberlain, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Childers watch the falling Gladstone, whilst portrayed in a skirt and bonnet is Earl Granville, the Leader of the House of Lords. Figures in the background include Randolph Churchill, William Harcourt and Otto von Bismarck.
O R MR WINKLE
PICKWICK ( JOHN B LL): TAKE HIS SKATES OFF, SAM
YO ’ RE A H MB G , SIR ! I WILL SPEAK PLAINER IF YO
WISH IT – AN IMPOSTER , SIR Signed Ink
12 ½ 15 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: St Stephen’s Review , 10 January 1885
Literature: Simon Houfe, Phil May. His Life and Work 1864-1903 , Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002, page 6
30
YO NGSTER (WHO HAS J ST GOT A PENNY TO SPEND): OW M CH IS THEM GRAPES MISTER?
SHOPKEEPER (AM SED): THEY ARE FO R SHILLINGS AND SI PENCE A PO ND, MY LAD.
YO NGSTER: WELL, THEN, GI E S A ’APORTH O’ CARROTS. I’M A DEMON FOR FR IT
Signed and dated ‘95
Signed and inscribed with title on the reverse Ink
8 5 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 1 June 1895, page 255
Literature: David Cuppleditch, Phil May the Artist & His Wit , London: Fortune Press, 1981, page 115
Exhibited: Fine Art Society, Edinburgh, June 1965, no 33;
‘The Art of Leaving Out – Phil May’, Cartoon Art Trust, London, August 2003
‘A childless man, with the heart of a child, Phil May dearly beloved to picture them whether as gutter-snipes, or patricians, and always in a gently-humorous manner’
(Phil May Folio, 1904) 31
SWEEP YO R DOOR AWAY M M?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
10 6 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Phil May’s Gutter-Snipes , London: Leadenhall Press, 1896, no 42
32 A B SINESS ANNO NCEMENT Signed and dated ‘95
7 ¾ 5 INCHES
Provenance: Mel Calman
Illustrated: Punch , 27 April 1895, page 201
34
33 ONLY THIS
Signed and dated 97
Inscribed ‘Songs and their Singers’ and ‘No 10’ below mount
Ink
7 ½ 5 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 1897, page 101; Phil May, Songs and their Singers from ‘Punch’ , London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co, 1898, no 9
‘SHE’S J ST ABO T THE NEATEST, P RTIEST, AN’ SWEETEAST DONAH
IN THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD’ (CHE ALIER)
Signed and dated 94
Pencil
9 5 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Phil May’s Illustrated Annual (Winter Season 1895-96) , London: Walter Haddon’s Central Publishing and Advertising Co, 1895, page 55
In the Bars & Streets:
‘It may be doubted whether Phil May was ever more at home than in the studies and sketches grouped under this heading. The worst state of the Bachanalian is relieved from severe revulsion by the humour that speaks in every line of pen and pencil’
(Phil May Folio, 1904)
Signed and dated ‘96
12 ¾ 9 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: The Phil May Folio , London: W Thacker & Co, 1904, ‘In the Bars & Streets’, page 51; Phil May’s Annual , 1897, page 68
Literature: Pictures by Phil May , London: Gowans & Gray, 1907, ‘In the Bars and Streets’
36 CHRISTMAS COMES B T ONCE A YEAR
POLICEMAN TO OLD GENT WHO HAS BEEN ‘ SEEING IT IN ’: ‘ LET ME HELP YO SIR ! DEAR ME , SIR , AND A GENTLEMAN IN YO R POSITION , SIR !’
Signed and dated 1901 M W Ingram Collection stamp on reverse mark on reverse Ink on board
9 ¾ 8 INCHES
Illustrated: Tatler , 25 December 1901, page 593
4. Early 20th Ce tury Illustrators
4
EARLY 20TH CENTURY ILLUSTRATORS
WARWICK GOBLE
Warwick Goble (1862-1943)
Warwick Goble was a signi cant contributor to the art of the Gift Book, the beautiful illustrated volumes of classic stories that were published during the early twentieth century. As a result of his interest in Asia, and of travels in that continent, he was often called to illustrate its traditional stories, and did so elegantly, even exquisitely, as a late exponent of Aestheticism.
Warwick Goble was born in Dalston, London, on 22 October 1862, the son of a commercial traveller. He was educated at the City of London School, where he revealed an early talent for watercolour painting. He was then employed for several years by a printing rm that specialised in chromolithography and commercial design work, while taking evening classes at Westminster School of Art. He contributed illustrations to various newspapers and periodicals before joining the sta of the Pall Mall Gazette and the Westminster Gazette and was considered an accomplished black-and-white artist. Nevertheless, his reputation rests mainly upon the charm of his colour book illustrations, which were in uenced by Oriental art. In 1909, he became resident illustrator for the publisher, Macmillan, beginning with Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, and then notably with Dinah Craik’s The Fairy Book (1913). His work for A & C Black, illustrating Constantinople (1906) and Turkey (1911), show that he based his Orientalism on rst hand experience and that he could work equally well in pastel as in watercolour. He exhibited at London societies and dealers, especially at the Fine Art Society (1909, 1910, 1911) and Walker’s Galleries. During the First World War, he was employed in a drawing o ce at Woolwich Arsenal, and later worked for the British Red Cross. From the mid 1920s, he gradually gave up illustration in order to pursue his favourite recreations: cycling, sculling and travelling. He died at his home at Shepherd’s Hill, Merstham, Surrey, on 22 January 1943.
THE PEONY LANTERN
The drawing illustrates The Peony Lantern, a ghost story about a handsome young Samurai in ancient Yedo, named Hagiwara. Whilst hunting for a lost shuttlecock in a mysterious garden, he encounters the beautiful Lady of the Morning Dew, and her handmaiden, O’Yoné. All is not what it seems however, and this fated meeting sets in motion a haunting tale of loss, love and ghostly apparitions carrying a lantern adorned with peonies …
37
THE PEONY LANTERN Signed
Watercolour with ink 13 ½ 9 INCHES
Illustrated: Grace James, Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales , London: MacMillan & Co. Ltd, 1910, facing page 25
EVELYN STUART HARDY
Beatrice Evelyn Elizabeth Hardy (1865-1935)
Beatrice Evelyn Elizabeth Hardy was born in 1865 in Clifton, Bristol. She was born into an artistic family – her father, David Hardy, her mother Emily and elder brothers David (better known as Paul) Hardy and Norman Heywood Hardy, were all artists. From an early age, she began contributing to periodicals, including Chums, The Gentlewoman, Little Folks, Our Jabberwock, The Penny Magazine, St James’s Budget and The Sporting and Dramatic News nder her pen name, Evelyn Stuart Hardy, she was known as a proli c illustrator of children’s books, contributing for dozens of titles, including Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1898), Old Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes (1910) and Stories from the Book of Books (1914). In particular, she enjoyed a close working relationship with the German publisher, Ernest Nister, who was best known as a producer of ‘Pop p’ and Nursery Rhyme books. Her work for Nister included Peep Bo Pictures (1898) and The Land Long Ago: A Visit to Fairyland with Humpty Dumpty (1890). She also wrote a number of books herself: The Book of Gnomes (1895), At the Farm (1920), Me and my Doggies (1924) and Me and my Ponies (1925). Across her career, she produced over 1,000 biblical illustrations for various publications, many of which appeared after her death in John Shaw’s Friends of Jesus, published in 1949. Evelyn Stuart Hardy did not marry, and died in Cuck eld, Sussex in 1935.
JOHN WILLIAMS, THE MARTYR OF POLYNESIA
Born in London to Welsh parents, John Williams (1796-1839) was a missionary who set sail in November 1816 with his wife Mary Chawner Williams to the South Paci c, with the goal of converting the inhabitants of the region’s many islands to Christianity. They reached Tahiti in the autumn of 1817 and soon after established their rst missionary post on the island of Raiatea. Over the following years, Williams and his wife were very successful in converting the native populations of the Society Islands, the Cook Islands and Samoa. In 1834, John Williams arrived back in London to a hero’s welcome. Whilst there, he published a popular text on the South Paci c, titled Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands
John Williams and his wife left London in 1837, arriving back the following year in the South Paci c to continue their work. In 1839, he set sail for the New Hebrides islands, an area of the South Paci c where his work was unknown. On the morning of 20 November 1839, shortly after arriving on the shores of the island of Erromango in the New Hebrides, Williams and a fellow missionary, James Harris, were killed by the native islanders. 38
THE MARTYR
OF POLYNESIA
Signed Watercolour 27 19 ¾ INCHES
LOUIS WAIN
Louis Wain (1860-1939)
At the turn of the century, Louis Wain became a household name as ‘The Man Who Drew Cats’. His drawings of cats appeared in periodicals, his own annuals and then, increasingly on prints and postcards. While his early work was already distinctive, in a gently humorous way, the onset of schizophrenia gradually transformed his style from early naturalism through knockabout anthropomorphism to the late highly coloured, patterned and at times disconcertingly fractal.
‘A CAT SOCIETY’ THE WORLD OF LO IS WAIN’S ANN ALS, 1901-1921
The annuals collected short stories and essays, written by some obscure and some well-known gures such as Sir William Ingram (proprietor of The Illustrated London News and Wain’s rst patron), all crammed between a proli c untidy menagerie of characteristic drawings. In their combination of eye-blinking naivety of thought and simple wacky charm they are the essence of Wain; it is the school magazine meets Pets’ Corner.
Chris Beetles, the leading authority on Louis Wain, brings to life over 300 superlative colour images in this comprehensive survey of the life and work of one of the best-known cat artists of the ictorian and Edwardian period. This impressive publication includes a new biography and a catalogue raisonné of Louis Wain's Lucky Futurist Mascots: his unique ceramic creations. Published in 2021, this is a new edition of Louis Wain’s Cats, with a foreward by Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Louis Wain in the 2022 feature lm, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.
It is Wain’s cat world: humans clad in fur but less concerned with dogs, comfort and the price of sh, and more taken up with the stylish endeavours of Edwardian England. Cats dress up to dance, to dine, to aunt their fashionable ways, to play sports, to make music, to brush with the Law, to squabble domestically and to express strong political opinions; all a bit o beat and foolish of course, but then the English public were prepared to laugh at themselves more easily when presented with comic social disorder out of the mouths of babes and animals.
This was the di cult annual formula that six di erent publishers attempted between the years 1901-15, with the ubiquitous publisher John F Shaw & Co involved in the fourteenth issue. A gap of six years intervened until the nal volume appeared in 1921. These years not only cover the peak of Wain’s fame, with the simultaneous production of hundreds of books and postcards, but also mark his watershed. By the time he had struggled to the outbreak of war, his business ineptitude was hampered further by his di cult personality, and a state of mind that was to slowly slide out of con dent reality into disabling psychosis.
An extract from Louis Wain’s Cats, Chris Beetles, 2021
Louis Wain’s Annual 1901, and the page on which the artwork was published.
39
TOMPONES SINGING LESSONS
YO CAN ’ T GET M CH SATISFACTION O T OF A SINGING LESSON
E CEPT YO R NE T DOOR NEIGHBO R ’ S IRRITATION
Inscribed with title below mount
Ink 13 9 INCHES
Illustrated: Louis Wain’s Annual 1901 , London: Anthony Treherne and Co, 1901, page 117
Louis Wain’s Annual 1915, and the page on which the artwork was published.
40
DEAR ME, THIS MBRELLA IS SO FASHIONABLE THAT I CANNOT OPEN IT IN CASE IT SPOILS ITS SHAPE
Signed and inscribed ‘Here I have bought a show umbrella & now it is raining it will not open’
Ink
9 ¼ 5 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Louis Wain’s Annual 1915 , London: John F Shaw & Co Ltd, page 83
CHARLES EDMUND BROCK
Charles Edmund Brock, RI (1870-1938)
While retaining distinct artistic personalities, the brothers, Charles and Henry Brock, developed a mutually supportive working relationship. As a result, they became leading illustrators of historical subjects, and especially of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century literature.
For a biography of Charles Edmund Brock and Henry Matthew Brock, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 64.
Nos 41-47 are all illustrated in Jane Austen, Persuasion, London: J M Dent & Co, 1909
PERS ASION
Persuasion was the sixth and nal completed novel by Jane Austen. It was published on 20 December 1817, ve months after her death.
Charles Edmund Brock’s association with the work of Jane Austen began in 1895, when he was commissioned by Macmillan to produce forty ink illustrations for Pride and Prejudice, published as part of their ‘Illustrated Standard Novels’ series. Over the following few years, C E Brock further enhanced his reputation producing illustrations for works such as Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1897) and Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wake eld (1898).
In 1898, Charles Edmund Brock, along with his brother Henry Matthew Brock, were commissioned by the London publishers J M Dent, to create a new set of illustrations for all six Jane Austen novels. In 1892, Dent had published what was considered the rst deluxe set of the novels in ten volumes, with monochrome wash drawings attributed to William Cubbitt Cooke. However, by 1898, the development of lithography allowed illustrations to be reproduced in colour. The Brock brothers would share the task equally, producing ve volumes each, with six illustrations per volume, with one as frontispiece, sixty illustrations in total. Charles would illustrate Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion, while Henry was responsible for Pride and Prejudice, Mans eld Park and Northanger Abbey. The set of novels were published in 1898 with great success and were reprinted in full between 1900 and 1905.
From 1904, Charles Edmund Brock began producing a delicate series of watercolours for Dent’s ‘English Idyll’ series, their immediate success led Dent to include a new resetting (one novel per volume) of the six complete Austen novels in the series. C E Brock produced 24 illustrations per Austen novel, including a frontispiece and decorated title page. Dent published two Jane Austen novels per year in this series, beginning in 1907 with Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice, followed by Sense and Sensibility and Mans eld Park in 1908, and nally with Emma and Persuasion in 1909.
41
HE HAD NO SCR PLE IN CONFESSING HIS J DGEMENT TO BE ENTIRELY ON THAT SIDE
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount Ink and watercolour
11 ½ 7 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 12
42
SO YO ARE COME AT LAST!
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount
Ink and watercolour
11 7 INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 32
43 THEIR GRANDMAMMA ... H MO RS AND IND LGES THEM
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount
Ink and watercolour
11 7 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 37
BRO GHT HOME IN CONSEQ ENCE OF A BAD FALL
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount
Ink and watercolour
11 7 INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 44
45
‘HERE
IS A N T’, SAID HE, ‘TO E EMPLIFY’
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount
Ink and watercolour
10 ¼ 6 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 77
46
BEING BY THE SEA ALWAYS MAKES HIM FEEL YO NG AGAIN
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount Ink and watercolour
11 7 INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 86
47
S CH A LETTER CO LD NOT BE READ WITHO T P TTING ANNE IN A GLOW
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1909
Inscribed with publication details below mount Ink and watercolour
11 7 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: facing page 178
FRANK REYNOLDS
Frank Reynolds, RI (1876-1953)
Drawing mainly from memory, Frank Reynolds was much admired for his direct characterisation of middle-class and low-life types and situations that frequent both his delightful book illustrations and his very funny cartoons. For a biography of Frank Reynolds, please refer to The Illustrators, 2011, page 130.
48
SHE: AND IS IT TR E THAT MEN ARE GOING TO WEAR KNEE-BREECHES WITH E ENING-DRESS?
HE: WELL, SOME OF S ARE IN FA O R OF IT, B T OTHERS ARE SO BEASTLY SHY.
Signed with initials and inscribed ‘Mr Towney (with Fervour) “You’ve no idea what a treat it is to get into knickers!”’
Ink
10 8 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: The Sketch , 16 November 1904, page 26
49
THE H MO RIST ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD
SHE : I S PPOSE YO ’ RE Q ITE DE OTED TO THE GAME ?
HE : RATHER ! KEEPS A CHAP SO RIPPINGLY FIT
Signed with initials and inscribed ‘He – “I like the game because it keeps me so awfully fit”’
Ink
13 ½ 9 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: The Sketch , 5 October 1904, page 24
DDONALD MCGILL
Donald McGill (1875-1962)
ubbed the ‘Picasso of the Pier’ by the writer, Dennis Potter, Donald McGill devoted his working life, from 1904, to designing comic cards for the postcard industry.
For a biography of Donald McGill, please refer to The Illustrators, 2011, page 127.
50
THERE’S SOME THINGS WORTH LOOKING AT HERE!
Inscribed with title on reverse Watercolour with bodycolour
9 6 ¼ INCHES
51
WE MADE SOME INTERESTING STOPS
Signed
Inscribed with title on reverse Watercolour
5 10 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
in 2006 featuring nearly 200 works. The fully illustrated exhibition catalogue is available to purchase from the gallery.
Chris Beetles Gallery held the Michael Winner Collection of Donald McGill
52
‘THE BOYS AND GIRLS HA E THE SAME C RRIC L M.’ ‘WELL, I DON’T LIKE THAT; I SHO LD HA E THO GHT THEY WO LD HA E B ILT ’EM SEPARATE ONES!’
Signed
Inscribed twice with title on reverse
Watercolour with bodycolour
7 ½ 5 ½ INCHES
53
‘HERE, YO ’ E GOT YO R TH MB IN MY SO P!’
‘IT’S ALL RIGHT, SIR, – IT AIN’T ’OT!’
Signed
Inscribed with title on reverse Watercolour with bodycolour
8 ¾ 6 ½ INCHES
f
FLORENCE HARRISON
Florence Susan Harrison (1877-1955)
lorence Harrison’s fantasical illustrations for children combined Pre-Raphaelite in uences with the practices of n-de-siècle poster artists. Associated with the publisher, Blackie & Son, throughout her career, Florence Harrison’s work ranged from illustrations of her own poetry for children, to Romantic literary texts by Rossetti, Tennyson and Morris, to one of her most celebrated creations, the 1912 book, El n Song
For a biography of Florence Harrison, please refer to The Illustrators, 2014, page 146.
Nos 54-62 were all illustrated in Florence Harrison, El n Song, London: Blackie & Son, 1912
54 WHAT IF WE WERE BOARDING SHIPS WITH SIL ER CORDING Ink
5 4 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: page 34, ‘Love and Death’
55 FAIRY AND B BBLES Ink
8 5 INCHES
Illustrated: page i
56 THERE FLEW A FAY TO MEADOW LANE Ink
3 4 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: page 81, ‘The Changelings’
57
THE H SH-A-BYE, SWEET, TO THE SPELL AND SONG OF THE DREAM SHELL
Ink
3 4 INCHES
Illustrated: page 76, ‘The Dream Shell’
59
A GNOME WAS TOILING THRO GH THE GLOAM WITH SACKS O’FAIRY SEED
58 BANSHEE IN THE BRANCHES Ink
5 ½ 4 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: page 52, ‘A Banshee Ballard’
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Ink
9 ¼ 6 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: page 23, ‘The Fairy Mill’
61
I’ E BEEN A FAIRY ALL NSEEN Ink
5 ½ 5 INCHES
Illustrated: page 26, ‘Swing Song’
62 ONE, WITH BLACK HAIR FLOWER-KNOTTED Ink
6 5 INCHES
Illustrated: page 95, ‘Pixy Work’
60 THE MERRY EL ES WERE LEAPING IN A RING Ink
2 ¼ 5 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: page 43, ‘The Gargoyle and the Chestnut Tree’
63 WAITING FOR SANTA CLA S Ink
3 2 INCHES
Drawn for but not illustrated in Florence Harrison, Elfin Song , London: Blackie & Son, 1912, ‘Santa Claus’
GEORGE STUDDY
George Ernest Studdy (1878-1948)
Studdy evolved his most famous character within the pages of The Sketch. ‘Bonzo’, the mischievous white puppy, rst appeared with that name on 8 November 1922, and became so popular that he was reproduced in many forms beyond books and postcards, from clocks to mascots.
For a biography of George Studdy, please refer to The Illustrators, 2011, page 132.
64 AN E CITING CHASE
Signed and dated 24 Watercolour and bodycolour 15 ½ 10 ½ INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Postcard design for BKWI Bonzo Serie Literature: Paul Babb and Gay Owen, Bonzo: The Life and Work of George Studdy , Shepton Beauchamp: Richard Dennis, 1988, no XXIII/4
Exhibited: ‘A Century of Illustration’, IBIS at Bonham’s, London, August 2000, no 22
The BKWI Bonzo Serie was a collection of Bonzo postcards published in Germany.
65
THINGS ARE TAKING A F NNY T RN HERE!
Signed, inscribed ‘The Skid’ and ‘To J Fricker from G E Studdy’, and dated 27
Watercolour with bodycolour
15 ½ 10 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Postcard design for Valentine & Sons Ltd, Dundee and London
Literature: Paul Babb and Gay Owen, Bonzo: The Life and Work of George Studdy , Shepton Beauchamp: Richard Dennis, 1988, no 1570
66
A KISS FROM YO R LITTLE SNOW WHITE
Signed
Inscribed ‘So this is love’ below mount
Watercolour and bodycolour
12 ½ 8 ¼ INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Postcard design for Valentine & Sons Ltd, Dundee and London
Literature: Paul Babb and Gay Owen, Bonzo: The Life and Work of George Studdy , Shepton Beauchamp: Richard Dennis, 1988, no 4245
HARRY ROUNTREE
Harry Rountree (1878-1950)
new Zealand-born Harry Rountree settled in London in 1901, and developed a perfect style for illustration, of at blocks of colour surrounded by thick outlines. Specialising in animal subjects, he illustrated many books, contributed widely to periodicals and designed posters.
Harry Rountree was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 26 January 1878, the second of seven children of the bank manager, Stephen Gilbert Rountree, and his wife, Julia (née Bartley). He was educated at the city’s Queen’s College, and began work in the lithographic department of Wilson & Horton Printers, designing labels for jam tins and other products, and producing advertisements for newspapers that were printed by the company.
In 1901, Rountree migrated to London and attempted to gain commissions with magazine editors. Having little immediate success, he decided to study art, and took a course of life drawing under Percival Gaskell at Regent Street Polytechnic’s School of Art. The style that he evolved there directed n-de-siècle elements towards comic ends, and his use of blocks of at colour surrounded by thick jagged lines was found to be equally suitable for small-scale illustrations and large posters. From 1903, he collaborated with Sam Hield Hamer, the editor of Little Folks, on a very successful series of books, the rst of which was Quackles, Junior. In the same year, he began to illustrate books with his own texts. Making frequent sketching visits to London Zoo, he soon specialised in animal subjects, and illustrated several classics of children’s literature, including Uncle Remus (1906, with René Bull) and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1908). While developing as a book illustrator, he also contributed to a wide range of magazines, including Punch (1905-39), The Graphic (1906, 1911), Comica (1908-9), and The Illustrated London News (1911).
In 1905, Rowntree married Auckland-born Estella Stewart at Oaklands Congregational Church, London, with S H Hamer as his best man. They settled at Dormer’s Wells House, Dormer’s Wells Lane, Southall, Middlesex, and it remained the family home until the Second World War. They would have two children, Gilbert (born 1907) and Lynda (born 1909). By the Census of 1911, they were joined by Harry’s brother, Edward, who was at that time a student. Harry played golf at the nearby West Middlesex Golf Club, and joined the Press Gol ng Society, the sport becoming a frequent subject of his art, including the series of watercolours that illustrate Bernard Darwin’s The Golf Courses of the British Isles (1910). Highly sociable, he was also a member of the Savage Club and the London Sketch Club, and he became President of the latter for the year 1914-15.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Rountree joined the National Reserve, becoming a captain in the 4th Battalion Middlesex olunteer Regiment. In May 1917, he joined the Royal Engineers, in which he rose to become an acting captain assigned to duties relating to Inland Water Transport at Richborough, Kent.
In 1917, Rountree was the subject of an issue of Percy enner Bradshaw’s series, ‘The Art of the Illustrator’. Following the end of the war, he joined the Advisory Sta of Bradshaw’s Press Art School, Forest School, and produced for it the watercolour course, ‘Birds, Beasts and Fishes’. He further diversi ed by designing greetings cards, calendars and postcards, and working in advertising, producing a long-running series of advertisements for Mansion and Cherry Blossom polishes that featured a family of mice. However, he continued to contribute to periodicals, including Playtime and The Radio Times, and illustrate books, including two editions of Aesop’s Fables (1924, 1934) and three collaborations with his daughter, Lynda (1929-31), who became a secretary at a technical college.
In 1942, the Rountrees moved to Cornwall, settling at a house, The Saltings, Lelant, just outside St Ives. Harry also took a studio at 5 Piazza Studios, St Ives (eventually becoming the owner of the whole block), and became a committee member of the St Ives Society of Artists and a town councillor (1945-48). However, despite his sociability, he maintained a distance from the Modernist artists now identi ed with St Ives, and indeed was highly critical of them. He died in West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, on 26 September 1950, and was survived by his wife and children.
Further reading:
Michael Pirie, ‘Rountree, Harry (1878–1950)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.110222
67 THE THREE BEARS Signed Watercolour 14 10 ¼ INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Charles S. Bayne (eds.), My Book of Fairy Tales , London: Cassell & Company, 1915
Exhibited: ‘A Century of Illustration’, IBIS at Bonham’s, London, August 2000, no 16
68
ALMOST A TIGER
Signed and inscribed with title Pencil and bodycolour on tinted paper 9 ¾ 13 ¼ INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
‘In the 1930s Rountree came to refer to strong golfers as “Tigers” and their weak counterparts as “Rabbits” (he himself was a Tiger, with a low handicap).
To show that he wasn’t biased against weak golfers at his golf club, the West Middlesex, he instituted a Rabbits Trophy in 1936 for members, such as his daughter, whose handicaps were 18 or higher. So this caricature is a send-up of a golfer who would like to think he is, or was, a strong player, from his picture hanging on the wall, but never really made it.’
(Michael Pirie)
LAWSON WOOD
Clarence Lawson Wood, RI (1878-1957)
Lawson Wood was an accomplished cartoonist, illustrator and poster designer. He gained great popularity with his humorous illustrations of animals, including dinosaurs and monkeys. The ginger ape, Gran’pop, proved a particular favourite on both sides of the Atlantic.
For a biography of Lawson Wood, please refer to The Illustrators, 2020, pages 46-47.
69
GRAN’POP’S MI ED SPORTS TENNIS – A HOT RET RN
Signed Inscribed with title on reverse Watercolour and bodycolour 17 13 ¾ INCHES
A SEPARATION; OR, FOR WHEEL OR WOA!
Signed and dated 08
Watercolour with pencil 14 9 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: The Sketch , 2 November 1910, page 62
E H SHEPARD
Ernest Howard Shepard, MC OBE (1879-1976)
While E H Shepard is now best remembered for his immortal illustrations to Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows, he was a wide-ranging artist and illustrator, with an unsurpassed genius for representing children, and an underrated talent for political cartoons.
For a biography of E H Shepard, please refer to The Illustrators, 2018, page 41.
SOMETHING WENT WRONG WITH THE SYSTERN
Following the announcement of the Budget on 21 April 1936, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, was faced with accusations that elements of the Budget had been leaked in advance. The accusations arose after unusually heavy transactions were noted at Lloyd’s of London, where many clients had been able to insure against the increase in income tax and tea duty. On 27 April, Chamberlain announced in the House of Commons that he had opened an inquiry into the allegations, requesting the Chairman of Lloyd’s, Charles N D Dixey, to ‘sift to the bottom’ of it.
On 3 May, the Lloyd’s committee completed its own inquiry into the Budget leakage, though it was inconclusive, as many members of Lloyd’s refused to disclose the names of their clients who insured against Budget risks, testifying on the stand that revealing names would be a break of professional con dence. However, later that month, a Tribunal of Inquiry found the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Jimmy Thomas, guilty of leaking the Budget proposals to the Conservative MP for Balham and Tooting, Sir Alfred Butt. The Inquiry also found that Thomas had tipped o his stockbroker son, Leslie, as well as a wealthy businessman and associate, Alfred ‘Cosher’ Bates. It was discovered that Thomas’ son Leslie had taken out two large policies on behalf of Bates, insuring him against the imminent rise in income tax. The scandal forced Jimmy Thomas to resign and ended his political career.
71
SOMETHING
WENT WRONG WITH THE SYSTERN
NE ILLE THE PL MBER ( TO OLD LADY OF LEADENHALL STREET )
‘ I BELIE E YO ’ RE RIGHT, MRS LLOYD I SHALL HA E TO SEND FOR A COMMITTEE TO ENQ IRE INTO IT.’
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with bodycolour 13 9 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 13 May 1936, page 535
THE AGE OF NREST
GRANDMAMMA , WHO HAS BEEN THWARTED , GOES ON H NGER - STRIKE
Published at a time of considerable political unrest in Ireland, E H Shepard’s image of ‘Grandmamma’, a recurring gure in many of his cartoons, references to the increasing use of the hunger strike as a tool of political resistance during this period.
In 1917, the Irish olunteer leader Thomas Ashe had died after being force fed during a hunger strike in Mountjoy Gaol, Dublin. After Ashe’s death, the remaining striking prisoners were granted political status that ended the hunger strike. On 3 March 1920, a man named William O’Brien, an o cial of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ nion, was arrested and deported to Wormwood Scrubs. On 18 March he went on hunger strike and, after the case was raised in Parliament by the Irish Labour Party, he was released on 26 March. Perhaps inspired by O’Brien’s example, Irish Republican prisoners in Mountjoy Gaol, led by Peader Clancy, went on hunger strike. On 5 April, 36 men refused food, followed by 30 more the following day, and by 9 April, 90 men were on hunger strike.
Within a few days, up to 20,000 people had congregated outside Mountjoy Gaol, demonstrating for their release. This was followed on 13 April by the calling of a general strike by the Irish Trade nion Council. Across Ireland, public transport stopped running, pickets forced most shops to close and mass protests were held. As a consequence, the British eventually agreed the release of hundreds of political prisoners across Ireland on 14 April. On 21 April, the Irish Republican prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs also went on hunger strike and shortly after, were also granted their release.
72
THE AGE OF NREST
GRANDMAMMA , WHO HAS BEEN THWARTED , GOES ON H NGER - STRIKE
Signed and inscribed with title below mount Ink
12 9 INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 28 April 1920, page 337
73
THAT SHRINKING FEELING
Signed
Inscribed with title below mount
Ink on board
11 ½ 9 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 24 August 1938, page 199
THAT SHRINKING FEELING
The summer of 1938 saw a number of advances and records in Transatlantic travel that, as Shepard suggests in the present cartoon, served to shrink the Atlantic Ocean and weaken Neptune’s claim as ruler of the seas. On 8 August, the RMS Queen Mary set a record for the fastest westbound crossing of the Atlantic, arriving in New York from Southampton in 3 days, 23 hours and 48 minutes. A week later, on 14 August, the Queen Mary set the eastbound record, returning to Southampton in 3 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes. Though the rst solo, non-stop Transatlantic ight had been achieved in May 1927 by the American aviator, Charles Lindbergh, the summer of 1938 had also recorded a number of other notable achievements in Transatlantic aviation. On 18 July, another American aviator, Douglas Corrigan, arrived at Baldonnel Aerodrome, County Dublin, having own solo and non-stop for 28 hours and 13 minutes from Floyd Bennett eld in Brooklyn, New York. This crossing was particularly notable for the fact that Corrigan had built his plane almost entirely from scratch and for three years had been denied permission and certi cation to allow him to attempt a crossing. He had own to Brooklyn from California under the pretence of making repairs and modi cations to his plane, but when he was granted permission to return to California, instead crossed the Atlantic, claiming a navigational error. Just three days later, on 21 July, another landmark was achieved when the Mercury ew from Foynes, Ireland, to Boucherville, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, becoming the rst commercial non-stop east to west Transatlantic ight by a heavier-than-air machine. On 10 August, the German airliner Brandenburg ew non-stop from Berlin to New York and returned non-stop as a proving ight for the development of passenger-carrying services.
E H Shepard’s cartoon demonstrates a prescience into the importance of the control of the waters and skies of the Atlantic Ocean, as a little over a year later, on the outbreak of the Second World War, the Battle of the Atlantic would begin.
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT
Signed and inscribed with title and ‘Poem in “Punch”’ below mount
Put away your pens and books, children, school is done with; pull your hats down from their hooks and your comrades run with! lads and lassies, earth is gay –owers and lambs are springing; all youth has a holiday –let us hear you singing!
Turn aside from motley toil, leaders of the great world –kings and rulers – from the coil wherein you were fate-hurled. come and jest awhile, you too, come and take your pleasure, come and get your strength anew –you must have your leisure.
Pile your tools and shut your shops, craftsmen, hard contriving; lo, the wheel of labour stops –cease to-day from striving. out into the friendly air, leave behind your pothers; take your good wife to the fair –she has also bothers!
Stay your ow of vain regrets, ancients in your ingles; dwell not on your pains and frets –rain with sunshine mingles; dream your hearts are once more blithe and you still go maying; dream your limbs are strong and lithe, dream we all are playing!
75
I MET A P PPY AS I WENT WALKING; WE GOT TALKING, P PPY AND I Pencil
4 5 ½ INCHES
Preliminary drawing for AA Milne, When We Were Very Young , London: Methuen & Co, 1924, page 8
76
TAILPIECE – AT END OR BEGINNING
Inscribed with title
Signed with initials and inscribed with artist’s address ‘Long Meadow, Longdown, Guildford, Surrey’ on reverse Ink on board
5 8 ¾ INCHES
The Shepard family moved to ‘Long Meadow’ in the summer of 1928. He lived there until 1956 when Ernest Shepard moved with his second wife, Norah, to ‘Woodmancote’ in Lodsworth, West Sussex.
H NDREDS AND THO SANDS
Inscribed ‘To R C Scriven with good wishes from Ernest Shepard’ Pencil 12 ¼ 17 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Preliminary drawing for Punch , 4 July 1951, pages 14-15, ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ by R C Scriven
78
PICKING HIS OLI ES WITH HIS FAMILY
Signed and inscribed with title below mount
Ink
8 5 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Honourable Lady Fortescue, Perfume From Provence , Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1935, page 106
79
JACK WILL HA E YO SOME DAY
Signed with initials
Inscribed with title and ‘Bevis & Frances’ below mount
Ink with pencil
7 6 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Richard Jeffries, Bevis , London: Jonathan Cape, 1932, page 227
4. Early 20th Century Illustrators
EDMUND DULAC
Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)
The multi-talented artist, Edmund Dulac, contributed more than a dash of French panache to the illustration of English gift books. Developing an exquisite palette and eclectic style, that referenced Japanese prints and Persian miniatures, he complemented the work of his chief rival, Arthur Rackham.
For a biography of Edmund Dulac, please refer to The Illustrators, 2017, pages 63-64.
Further reading:
Edmund Dulac: Illustrator and Designer , Sheffield City Art Galleries, 1983; James Hamilton, ‘Dulac, Edmund [Edmond] (1882-1953)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, vol 17, pages 168-170; Ann Conolly Hughey, Edmund Dulac.
His Book Illustrations. A Bibliography , Potomac: Buttonwood Press, 1995; Colin White, Edmund Dulac , London: Studio Vista, 1976 81
OLD WOMAN KNITTING IN FRONT OF A BRAZIER
Signed, inscribed ‘London Sketch Club’, and dated ‘Dec 16th 06’
Watercolour with bodycolour 9 ¾ 9 ¼ INCHES
OLD WOMAN KNITTING IN FRONT OF A BRAZIER
After rst visiting London in the autumn of 1904, Edmund Dulac settled properly in the city in August of the following year, in Holland Park. Shortly thereafter, he joined the London Sketch Club, a private members club founded in 1898 by a group of artists including Dudley Hardy, Cecil Aldin, Phil May, Tom Browne and John Hassall. The Club would meet each week for a session drawing from memory, followed by drinks and dinner. It is likely that this drawing was created during one such meeting.
THE ROC’S EGG
It is thought that Sinbad’s adventures were based on the experiences of merchants from Basra (Iraq) who, in the 9th century perilously traded with the East Indies and China.
In the course of his seven voyages around the seas of eastern Africa and southern Asia, Sinbad encounters magical kingdoms and fantastical monsters.
‘The Roc’s Egg’ [82] is from Sinbad’s fth voyage.
These stories form a latter part of the Arabian folktales, known in Britain, as the Arabian Nights. Dulac, one of the nest Gift Book illustrators at the turn of the 20th century, contributed well over 50 illustrations to the editions (at least 12) rst published in 1907 by Hodder & Stoughton. This illustration is very likely to have been from one of these editions.
82
THE ROC’S EGG
Signed and dated 1906
Watercolour
9 8 ¾ INCHES
Provenance: Luke
Gertler Collection
Exhibited: The Leicester Galleries, London, December 1907, no 27
CHERRY BLOSSOM
According to the inscription, the present illustration appears to have been a gift from Edmund Dulac to Ernest E Moore (1865-1940) in December 1905, a few months after Dulac had settled in London. Ernest E Moore was himself an artist who would become an accomplished portrait painter. After studying at Barnsley School of Art, Moore travelled to further his studies in Paris, where he may have rst met Edmund Dulac. In 1932, Ernest E Moore competed in painting at the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
83
CHERRY BLOSSOM
Signed twice, inscribed ‘To Ernest E Moore from his friend’ and dated 1905 and ‘London Dec/05’
Watercolour with bodycolour 13 ½ 11 ½ INCHES
FOUGASSE
Cyril Kenneth Bird, CBE (1887-1965), known as ‘Fougasse’
As cartoonist, art editor and editor, Kenneth Bird transformed the style of Punch. His own contributions pared down human activity with such economy as to suggest the essence of modern life. This approach also had a signi cant in uence on advertising, as in the emphasis on the elegant streamlining of Austin Reed’s ‘New Tailoring’.
For a biography of Fougasse, please refer to The Illustrators, 2009, page 77.
84
HOW TO PLAY R GBY FOOTBALL
Signed Ink and watercolour 11 16 INCHES
Illustrated: Design for a Rugby Football Union Poster, circa 1950s
85
THE BASIC SKILLS IN R GBY FOOTBALL
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour 14 ¼ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: Fougasse, The Basic Skills in Rugby Football , London: Rugby Football Union, 1961, front cover
Nos 87-96 are all drawn for but not illustrated in Fougasse, The Basic Skills in Rugby Football, London: Rugby Football nion, 1961
87 (top) PASSING THE SATCHEL Ink; 2 4 ¾ INCHES
89 (below) SPRINTING TO THE POSTS Ink; 1 ½ 4 ¾ INCHES
88 (above) BLOWING AWAY Ink; 1 ½ 4 ¾ INCHES
90 (bottom) THE AFTERMATH Ink; 1 ¼ 4 ¾ INCHES
SCORING A TRY
Ink and watercolour
9 ½ 6 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Fougasse, The Basic Skills in Rugby Football , London: Rugby Football Union, 1961, back cover
93 (above right) STAMINA
3 4 ¾ INCHES
Inscribed with title Ink; 2 ½ 5 INCHES
I WO LDN’T MIND TRAINING FO R NIGHTS A WEEK, IF ONLY ONE DIDN’T HA E TO T RN O T ON SAT RDAY AFTERNOONS AS WELL
Inscribed with title
2 ¼ 5 INCHES
94 (right) STRENGTH
Inscribed with title Ink; 2 ¼ 5 INCHES
95 (below right) SPEED
Inscribed with title Ink; 2 ¼ 4 ¾ INCHES
YES, I PLAY CRICKET AS OFTEN AS I CAN: IT KEEPS ME FIT FOR ... TENNIS, WHICH I PLAY AS OFTEN AS I CAN: IT KEEPS ME FIT FOR ... BADMINTON, WHICH I PLAY AS OFTEN AS I CAN: IT KEEPS ME FOR FOR ... SQ ASH, WHICH I PLAY AS OFTEN AS I CAN: IT KEEPS ME FIT FOR ... FI ES, WHICH I PLAY AS OFTEN AS I CAN: IT KEEPS ME FIT FOR ... ... R GGER! Ink 6 ¼ 10 INCHES
H M BATEMAN
Henry Mayo Bateman (1887-1970)
HM Bateman established his inimitable style before the First World War when, as he put it, he ‘went mad on paper’, by drawing people’s mood and character. This culminated in ‘The Man Who ...’, his famous series of cartoons dramatising social ga es.
For a biography of H M Bateman, please refer to The Illustrators, 2020, page 56.
97 (below) CHRISTMAS FARE
MY GRANDFATHER WAS A BIG MAN B T WHEN THE T RKEY WAS PLACED IN FRONT OF HIM HE WAS PRACTICALLY ECLIPSED !
Signed and dated 1922
Signed and inscribed ‘Christmas Fare’ on reverse Ink on tinted paper
8 9 ½ INCHES
98 (top) GRAD ALLY HE BEGAN TO EAT
Signed and dated 18
Inscribed with title below mount Ink on tinted paper
6 10 INCHES
99 (above) AT THE FISHMONGERS Ink on tinted paper
7 ½ 11 INCHES
100 THE ARCHITECT
Signed and dated 1921
Ink
16 22 INCHES
Illustrated: The Tatler , 21 December 1921, pages 14-15
Two panels; each measuring 16 x 11 inches
101
THE COLONEL’S
Signed
Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Ink and watercolour 14 ¼ 10 ¼ INCHES
Provenance: Christie’s, Annabel’s, 20 November 2018
Illustrated: Tatler , 30 November 1928; Windsor Magazine
CHRISTMAS DREAM
102 THE DEED
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour 12 ¾ 19 INCHES
Provenance: Christie’s, Annabel’s, 20 November 2018 Illustrated: Tatler , 25 July 1928, pages 30-31 On loan from a private collection
OJAMES THURBER
James Grover Thurber (1894-1961)
ne of the foremost and most celebrated American humourists of the twentieth century, James Thurber rose to prominence as a writer and cartoonist in the early years of The New Yorker. The simple line of his cartoons, often portraying a wife’s frustration with her meek husband, became an iconic feature of The New Yorker, and with the humour and wit of his writings in stories such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Dog That Bit People, James Thurber developed into a distinguished author, playwright and one of the greatest of the modern American storytellers.
For a biography of James Thurber, please refer to The Illustrators, 2023, page 58.
103 (above) THE PACEMAKER
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Ink
8 ½ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: James Thurber, The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments , New York: Harper &Brothers, 1932, [unpaginated];
James Thurber, Alarms and Diversions , London: Hamish Hamilton, 1957, page 237
104 (left) FASTER
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 ½ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: James Thurber, The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments , New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932, [unpaginated];
James Thurber, Alarms and Diversions, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1957, page 238
THE PACEMAKER, FASTER AND THE SK LL – THE RACE OF LIFE: A PARABLE
These three illustrations were drawn as part of a thirty- ve drawing series that depending on the viewer’s interpretation, represents the life story of a man and his wife; or several days, a month, or a year in their life and that of their child; or their alternatively interconnecting and diverging streams on consciousness over any given period.
105
THE SK LL
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 ½ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: James Thurber, The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments , New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932, [unpaginated]; James Thurber, Alarms and Diversions , London: Hamish Hamilton, 1957, page 245
106
A DOG AND A GLOBE
Signed with initials and inscribed ‘For Thursday (no caption)’
Dated ‘Oct 24 1940’ on reverse Ink
8 ½ 11 INCHES
Possibly drawn for The New Yorker, circa 1940
MARY TOURTEL
Mary Tourtel (1897-1940)
I
llustrating books from the turn of the century, Mary Tourtel created the character of Rupert Bear in 1920, in a charming style, and ung him ‘into a fairy-tale world of magic spells, ogres and ying witches, dragons and wicked wolves’.
107 R PERT’S TRICK-SHOP TEA: ONE DAY, TOO, R PERT GA E A SPREAD
Signed Ink with crayon
4 ¼ 6 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Mary Tourtel, Rupert at School , London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co, 1922, no 14
108 R PERT AND THE FAIRY CHILD
Signed Ink
4 ¼ 6 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: The Rupert Story Book , 1938
PONT
Graham Laidler, ARIBA (1908-1940), known as ‘Pont’
following in the Punch tradition of George Du Maurier and Frank Reynolds, Graham ‘Pont’ Laidler excelled at satirising the British middle classes. Before his premature death at the age of just 32, Laidler had established a reputation as one of the nest cartoonists of the twentieth century with his acute observations of ‘the British Character’.
For a biography of Pont, please refer to The Illustrators, 2014, page 130.
109 WILL YO R GRACE TAKE THE THICK OR THE CLEAR?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with pencil
8 ¼ 5 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Pont, Most of Us Are Absurd , London: Collins, 1946, page 84
5. William Heath Robi so
110
DOG ON THE BRAIN
Signed and inscribed ‘Absence of Mind’ Ink
15 ¼ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Sketch , vol 80, 1912, page 269, ‘Absence of Mind’ series
Exhibited: ‘Watercolours by W. Heath Robinson’, The Fine Art Society, London, March 1945, no 7, as ‘Absent Minded’
5
WILLIAM HEATH ROBINSON
WILLIAM HEATH ROBINSON
William Heath Robinson (1872-1944)
Heath Robinson is a household name, and a byword for a design or construction that is ‘ingeniously or ridiculously over-complicated’ (as de ned by The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998, page 848). Yet, he was also a highly distinctive and versatile illustrator, whose work could touch at one extreme the romantic watercolours of a Dulac or Rackham, at another the sinister grotesqueries of a Peake, and at yet another the eccentricities of an Emett.
For a biography of William Heath Robinson, please refer to The Illustrators, 2018, page 22.
Essays on various aspects of Heath Robinson’s achievements have appeared in previous editions of The Illustrators: on his illustrations to Rabelais in 1996, pages 112-113; on the relationship of his illustrations to those of Arthur Rackham in 1997, pages 124-125; on his illustrations to The Arabian Nights Entertainments in 1999, pages 73-74; and on one of his illustrations to Twelfth Night in 2000, pages 17-18.
Special thanks to Geo rey Beare for his assistance with additional research.
111 MODESTY
Signed and inscribed with title below mount
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1866 on reverse Ink
16 12 INCHES
Illustrated: The Humorist , 16 April 1927
112 FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS
THE LANDING OF THE E PEDITION P THE RI ER WEMB TO DISCO ER & SEC RE A SITE FOR THE PRESENT E HIBITION
Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Bystander’ Ink
15 ¼ 10 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Bystander , 13 August 1924, page 21
and inscribed with title
19 14 INCHES
Illustrated: Sunday Graphic , 11 January 1931, page 9
DRAWING LOTS FOR TRO SERS
Signed and inscribed with title
Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Ink
16 12 INCHES
Illustrated: The Sketch , 8 May 1940
William Heath Robinson
A CLE ERLY THO GHT O T SCHEME FOR SMASHING ENEMY TANKS ON THE DO ER ROAD
Signed and inscribed with title Signed on reverse Ink
15 ¼ 11 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: The Sketch , 21 August 1940, page 8
5. William Heath Robinson
116
SIGNS OF SPRING IN TOWN
Signed and inscribed ‘Rough Sketch’
Ink with pencil
14 10 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Preliminary drawing for ‘Unexpected Signs of Spring in the Strand’, London Opinion , circa May 1929
117
REMARKABLE SIDE SLIP OF AN AEROPLANE ON A BIT OF FISH INAD ERTENTLY PLACED IN ITS PATH
Signed and inscribed ‘Rough Sketch’ Ink with pencil 14 10 ¼ INCHES
Unpublished drawing similar to ‘A Zeppelin’s Nasty Side Slip on a Banana Skin Dropped by a Thoughtless Airman’, London Opinion , 9 December 1916
118
TRAPPING THE CLOTHES MOTH IN THE WILDS OF IDAHO
Signed, inscribed with title and ‘Sport in the Wild West’
Signed twice and inscribed with title on reverse Ink and watercolour 17 ½ 11 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: W Heath Robinson, Absurdities. A Book of Collected Drawings , London: Hutchinson & Co, 1934
Inscribed by Josephine Heath Robinson ‘To Oliver and Evelyn, With Mother’s Care’ on reverse
5. William Heath Robinson
William Heath Robinson
BACCHANALS
Signed
Inscribed with title on a back label on reverse
Ink and watercolour with charcoal and bodycolour
12 ½ 20 INCHES
Possibly produced for the London Sketch Club
5. William Heath Robinson
PRINCESS
Ink 11 8 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Charles Perrault, Old Time Stories , London: Constable & Co, 1921, page 179
William Heath Robinson
ROSETTE
WENT TO SEE HER E ERY DAY
Signed and inscribed with title and ‘Princess Rosette’ below mount
Inscribed with title on reverse Ink and watercolour 11 8 ¼ INCHES
Drawn for but not illustrated in Charles Perrault, Old Time Stories , London: Constable & Co, 1921
5. William Heath Robinson
123
CHARACTER HEAD
ST DIES FROM RABELAIS – ‘GARGANT A & PANTAGR EL’
Ink
7 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Works of Mr Francis Rabelais , London: Grant Richards, 1904, (Left To Right) vol i, page 29; vol i, page 1; vol ii, page 278
124 (left) A GENTLEMAN’S
GENTLEMANS PAGE
Signed with initials and inscribed with title
Signed on reverse
Ink
14 ½ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: Hans Christian Andersen, Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales , New York: Henry Holt, 1913, ‘The Snow Queen’, page 102, as ‘And The Nearer They Were To The Door The Prouder They Looked’
Inscribed by Josephine Heath Robinson ‘To Oliver and Evelyn, With Mother’s Care’ on reverse
125 (opposite, right)
PLAY BY ME, BATHE IN ME, MOTHER AND CHILD
Signed and inscribed with title below mount Ink
14 10 INCHES
Illustrated: Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies: A Fairy Story For a Land-Baby , London: Constable & Co, 1915, page 37
126 (right)
A KING IN ROBES
Signed Ink
15 ¼ 10 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: The Strand , December 1914, page 786, ‘The Death of Dancing Roarer’ by Norah M
Craggs
– WAS HANDING THEM A C P OF TEA EACH
Inscribed with title
Ink
7 ½ 9 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Norman Hunter, The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm , London: John Lane, 1933, page 21
6. Postwar Cartoo ists & Illustrators
6
POSTWAR CARTOONISTS & ILLUSTRATORS
EDWARD ARDIZZONE
Edward Ardizzone, CBE RA ARWS RDI (1900-1979)
Highly observant and immensely humane, the work of Edward Ardizzone is in direct descent from the nest French and English illustrators of the nineteenth century. Developing as an artist from 1930, Ardizzone made his name as an illustrator through his contributions to the Radio Times and then with Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, which proved to be one of the most signi cant picture books from between the wars. Soon considered one of the greatest illustrators of his generation, he also gained a reputation as a distinguished O cial War Artist, through his record in word and image of action in Europe and North Africa. ersatile and productive, he produced paintings, sculptures, etchings and lithographs, and worked as a designer.
For a biography of Edward Ardizzone, please refer to The Illustrators, 2019, page 79.
128
Nos 128-130 are all illustrated in Aingelda Ardizzone, The Night Ride, London: Longman Young Books, 1973
DARKNESS FELL B T THE TOYS WERE ENJOYING THE RIDE SO M CH THAT THEY DID NOT WANT TO STOP. THE MOON ROSE AND CAST A SIL ERY LIGHT O ER THE FIELDS
Affixed with printed title
Watercolour and ink 6 ¼ 17 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: pages 16-17
129 (above left) ON AND ON THEY RATTLED THRO GH ILLAGES AND MARKET TOWNS
Watercolour and ink
6 ¼ 8 INCHES
Illustrated: page 18
129a (above right) AFTER A WHILE THE TOYS BEGAN TO FEEL ERY TIRED AND BLOWN ABO T BY THE COLD WIND
Watercolour and ink
4 ¼ 6 ½ INCHES ; Illustrated: page 19
130 (below) SHE TIDIED THEM P AND PLAYED WITH THEM BY THE CHRISTMAS TREE
Watercolour and ink
6 ½ 17 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: pages 30-31
J STICE HARBOTTLE
Mr Justice Harbottle appears as the third of ve Sheridan Le Fanu stories in In A Glass Darkly, rst published in 1872. An edition illustrated by Edward Ardizzone was published by Peter Davies in 1929 in ‘The Covent Garden Library’, though the present illustration does not feature.
Signed with initials and inscribed with title
Watercolour with pencil
7 ½ 11 INCHES
Sheridan Le Fanu’s story centres around Elijah Harbottle, a corrupt and cruel judge in the Court of Common Pleas who has sentenced many innocent men to death. He nds himself haunted by vengeful spirits and supernatural beings, and in a disturbing dream he is condemned to death by a monstrous doppelgänger.
J STICE HARBOTTLE
132
PRI ATE IEW AT THE RWS
Signed with initials
Ink and watercolour
8 9 ½ INCHES
Edward Ardizzone was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1952.
133
BEST WISHES FOR CHRISTMAS & THE NEW YEAR FROM EDWARD & CATHERINE ARDIZZONE
Inscribed with title Ink
6 7 INCHES
Design for Edward and Catherine Ardizzone’s Christmas Card
134 A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPERO S NEW YEAR Ink
7 9 ¼ INCHES
Design for Edward and Catherine Ardizzone’s Christmas Card
Ink
10 8 INCHES
10 8 INCHES
WINE TASTERS
Drawn on Edward Ardizzone’s headed paper
136 A LONG-NECKED WOMAN Ink
Drawn on Edward Ardizzone’s headed paper
138
E ENING IN MAIDA ALE
Signed, inscribed ‘Maida Vale’ and numbered ‘9/20’
Lithograph
Signed with initials
¼ 7 INCHES
8 ¼ 9 INCHES
Literature: Nicholas Ardizzone, Edward Ardizzone’s World – The Etchings and Lithographs , London: Unicorn Press and Wolseley Fine Arts, 2000, page 96
137
ROMAN CAPRICCIO
139 BATHERS
Signed with initials Ink
8 ¼ 11 ¾ INCHES
140 TOMMIES Ink
9 12 INCHES
Likely drawn during Edward Ardizzone’s time in Europe as an O cial War Artist.
AL HIRSCHFELD
Albert Hirschfeld (1903-2003)
Al Hirschfeld had the rst and last word on New York theatre for nearly 80 years. Heralding the arrival of virtually every show on Broadway with a caricature each Sunday in The New York Times, he has as his legacy the longest-standing eyewitness record of the most elusive of art forms. With seemingly few strokes of ink, he captured all that is enthralling about one genre while demonstrating an unmatchable talent in another.
AD ERTISEMENTS FOR THE EL SAN J AN HOTEL
These illustrations were drawn as part of an advertising campaign for the El San Juan Hotel and Casino, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Published between 1964 and 1973, the advertisements celebrated many of the stars of stage and screen who sang and performed at the El San Juan Hotel during this period, such as Liza Minelli, Sammy Davis Jr, Shirley Bassey and Jerry ale.
For a biography of Al Hirschfeld, please refer to The Illustrators, 2007, pages 325-326. 141
STARS COME O T
23 ½ 19 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Advertisement for El San Juan Hotel, Published from 1 February 1971
142 AT EL SAN J AN HOTEL WHEN THE S N GOES DOWN THE STARS COME O T Signed Ink 18 ¾ 16 INCHES Illustrated: Advertisement for El San Juan Hotel, Published from 1 December 1969
ROWLAND EMETT
Frederick Rowland Emett OBE (1906-1990)
Rowland Emett established himself as the creator of elegant and whimsical cartoons during the 1930s, while working as an industrial draughtsman. In 1951, he reached a wider public with his designs for The Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway, which was sited at Battersea Park during the Festival of Britain. Gradually, he converted more of his illustrations into increasingly complex three-dimensional machines. Both drawings and inventions helped cheer a nation fed up with years of austerity over the war.
For a biography of Rowland Emett, please refer to The Illustrators, 2019, page 105.
144
LANTERN LECT RE –
PROF CORNCRAKE ON LITTLE KNOWN BIRDS AND THEIR C RE
Signed Ink and watercolour
11 ¼ 9 INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 23 September 1942
11 ½ INCHES
Provenance: James Heinemann Collection
IONICUS
Joshua Charles Armitage (1913-1998)
Working as ‘Ionicus’, Joshua Charles Armitage is probably best remembered for the covers that he produced for a Penguin paperback edition of the books of P G Wodehouse and for the many cartoons that he contributed to Punch. However, he was a varied and proli c illustrator, cartoonist and painter who has been admired for his craftsmanship and clarity of vision.
For a biography of Ionicus, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 132.
146
THE STRING Q ARTET
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 1991
Watercolour and bodycolour with ink
9 ¾ 12 ¼ INCHES
EMMWOOD
John Musgrave-Wood (1915-1999), known as ‘Emmwood’
Emmwood produced regular illustrations to The Tatler’s theatre reviews and a series of caricatures entitled ‘Emmwood’s Aviary’. Executing similar work for Punch, he moved to the Daily Mail, and became the newspaper’s political cartoonist, one of the last of a classic generation.
For a biography of Emmwood, please refer to The Illustrators, 2014, page 208.
MR MILLER PILES ON THE AGONY
Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge, directed by Peter Brook opened in London’s West End on 11 October 1956.
Milton Shulman in reviewing the rst night in a piece titled ‘Mr Miller piles on the agony’ reported,
‘Peter Brook’s production with its mood music of New York sounds, its stylised groupings, casts a symbolic aura over this sombre story of primitive passion ...
Anthony Quayle grasps the part of the simple, muddled, jealousy-crazed long-shoreman with a powerful assurance and gives a memorable performance of stumbling, inarticulate passion and envy ... Mary re as the niece, establishes with a sure touch the bewilderment and anxiety of someone too young to understand the violence of love. Brian Bedford is excellent in the subtle and testing role of a boy ba ed by the charge of homosexuality.’
147
MR MILLER PILES ON THE AGONY: MARY RE , BRIAN BEDFORD AND ANTHONY Q AYLE
THE ORPHAN , THE IMMIGRANT AND THE LONGSHOREMAN
Signed Ink and zippatone
8 ¾ 7 INCHES
Illustrated: Evening Standard , 12 October 1956, ‘At the Theatre’ by Milton Shulman
148 S PER-COLOSSAL BRECHT –
B T IT STILL LEA ES S WONDERING
Signed Ink with zippatone
3 4 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Evening Standard , 1 November 1956, ‘At the Theatre’, by Milton Shulman
Bertold Brecht’s play The Good Woman of Setzuan directed and produced by George Devine for the English Stage Company opened at The Royal Court Theatre on 31October 1956. It starred Peggy Ashcroft as Shen Te and Peter Wyngarde as Yang Sun.
Milton Shulman wrote that ‘Peggy Ashcroft manages some rare moments of modulated beauty as the girl with a heart as big as China ... (but) ... could not quite conceal hints of Kensington propriety’.
THE RE NION
The Reunion by T S Eliot opened at the Phoenix Theatre on 7 June 1956 and ran until 1 September 1956. Directed by Peter Brook, it starred Paul Sco eld as Harry, Lord Monchensey; Dame Sybil Thorndike as his mother Amy, Dowager Lady Monchensey; Gwen Ffrangcon as Agatha, her younger sister; and Cyril Luckham as Gerald and David Horne as Charles, brothers of Amy’s deceased husband.
149
THE RE NION
Signed
Ink with zippatone
7 ½ 8 INCHES
Illustrated: Evening Standard , 8 June 1956, ‘Last Night’s Theatre’, by Milton Shulman
JOHN MINTON
John Minton (1917-1957)
John Minton was born at Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire on 25 December 1917, the son of a solicitor. He was educated at Northcli e House, Bognor Regis, and at Reading School, and then studied in London, under Patrick Millard and Kenneth Martin at St John's Wood School of Art (1935-38). During his time there he met Michael Ayrton who, though several years his junior, encouraged him to absorb the in uence of the French Neo-Romantics both from books and from visits to Paris and Les Baux in Provence (1938-39). These experiences rst bore fruit in collaborations with Ayrton, in designs for John Gielgud’s production of Macbeth, and in a joint show at the Leicester Galleries (both 1942).
Though Minton had considered himself a conscientious objector at the outbreak of the Second World War, he entered the Pioneer Corps in 1941, and was commissioned for a short time two years later, being released on medical grounds. On his return to London, he shared a studio with Scot tish painters Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, and taught illustration at Camberwell School of Art (1943-46). He then shared a studio with Keith aughan (1946-52) and taught at the Central School of Art (1946-48) and the Royal College of Art (1948-57).
During the late 1940s, Minton synthesised the in uence of contemporary French and British painters, and such Romantic artists as Samuel Palmer, to form his mature style. He then established himself as a leading Neo-Romantic gure with emotionally charged paintings, often of young men in landscape settings, which he exhibited in regular solo shows at the Lefevre Gallery (from 1945), and also at the Royal Academy (from 1949). By the end of the decade, he was known as a varied designer as well as painter, and especially as the illustrator of such notable volumes as an English edition of Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes (1947) and Alan Ross’s travel book on Corsica, Time Was Away (1948). These projects marked his fascination with isolated and exotic terrains and, travelling extensively in search of new subjects, he visited Spain (1948 and 1954), the West Indies (1950) and Morocco (1952).
After 1950, Minton felt increasingly at odds with international fashions in modern art, arguing with Francis Bacon and criticising the critic David Sylvester. He found compensation in his celebrated position at the centre of bohemian London and, more than ever living for the moment, frequented Soho's pubs and clubs. The last part of his working life was again devoted to designs for the stage, including Don Juan and The Death of Satan, two plays by Ronald Duncan produced in 1956 at the Royal Court. Ill at ease with his homosexuality, he made two attempts to take his own life and nally committed suicide through an overdose of drugs on 20 September 1957. The Arts Council organised a memorial exhibition of his work during the following year. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the Tate Gallery, the ictoria and Albert Museum, and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Further reading:
Frances Spalding, Dance till the Stars Come Down: A Biography of John Minton , London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991
150 TO ME HE WAS NWEARIEDLY KIND
Ink; 7 ¾ 6 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island , London: Camden Classics, 1947, page 73
Exhibited: ‘A Century of Illustration’, IBIS at Bonham’s, London, August 2000, no 40
“To me he was unweariedly kind, and always glad to see me in the galley, which he kept as clean as a new pin, the dishes hanging up burnished, and his parrot in a cage in one corner. And the parrot would say, with great rapidity, “Pieces of eight! pieces of eight! pieces of eight!”’
151 THE PER IAN AMBASSADOR INTER ENES Ink
7 9 INCHES
Provenance: Luke Gertler Collection
Illustrated: Lilliput , July 1948, vol 22 no 7, issue 133, page 19
In this article (as Britain was about to host the Post-War Olympic Games) J P W Mallalieu MP recalls in humour the international spats and controversies during the Olympics over the century:
‘The Peruvian Ambassador, too, intervened on behalf of his football team, which had been disquali ed when Peruvian spectators kicked an Austrian player during the match.
The Ambassador let it be known during the negotiations that he had a train waiting with steam up if the negotiations failed. He had to use the train.’
152
PHILANTROPHY
‘ MR YATES HAD TO BE SM GGLED O T OF THE GOODS ENTRANCE ...’
Signed with initials
Inscribed with title and ‘Headpiece’ below mount
Ink
6 ½ 8 ½ IN CHES
Illustrated: Drawn for Lilliput , late 1940s
FRANK HAMPSON
Frank Hampson (1918-1985)
The adventures of ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future’ were set around the year two thousand but, according to his creator, Frank Hampson, they really began in Belgium in 1944 when, as a young army lieutenant, he watched the German -2 rockets soaring into the sky. In 1953, he wrote, ‘On the quays of Antwerp you could watch the birth of Space Travel’. By that time the popularity of his strip cartoon, ‘Dan Dare’, had rocketed the sales of the Eagle comic into the outer stratosphere, and every week a million boys waited with bated breath for the next episode.
The son of a policeman, Frank Hampson was born in a small terraced house in Audenshaw, near Manchester, on 21 December 1918. Three months later he moved with his family to Southport, and it was there that he spent his early life. Revealing a talent for drawing while a pupil at George Grammar School, he attended life classes at the local school of art when he began to work for the Post O ce. Then, in 1938, at the age of 19, he became a full-time art student at the ictoria Science and Art Schools. The following year, he gained an immediate National Diploma of Design but, with the outbreak of the Second World War, volunteered for the army, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant. During the next six years he saw action in France and Belgium, and lived through the experiences that would inform and in uence much of his future creativity. Following his discharge, he spent three years at Southport School of Arts and Crafts; Harold Johns and Eric Eden, who both later joined his studio, were among his contemporaries.
As Hampson was married with a son, he had to nd freelance work to supplement his grant. He provided illustrations to Anvil, a Church of England magazine which had been turned from a ‘Parish Mag’ into a national publication through the entrepreneurial talents of a local parson, the Reverend Marcus Morris. But Morris had his eye on wider horizons. He wanted to produce a comic strip for boys that would combat the in ux of American horror comics with their crude and senseless violence, and promote Christian values. Initially, he asked Hampson to draw a single strip about an East End vicar ‘Lex Christian’. This completely failed to get o the ground but, stirred on by the defeat, they decided to go all out and produce an entire comic instead. Hampson suggested that outer space and science ction would provide a wider and more enticing playing eld than the East End of London, and he transformed Lex Christian into ‘Chaplain Dan Dare of the Interplanet Patrol’, complete with dog-collar and cape. Finally, he decided to drop the overt Christian message entirely and call him simply, Colonel Dan Dare. And so ‘Dan Dare’ –the front page strip ‘that sold the Eagle’ – was born. His religious origins may now be hidden – but they were still undeniably there; Dan was named after Hampson’s mother’s favourite hymn, Dare to be Daniel, and the comic’s title,
Eagle, inspired by a large eagle-shaped lectern, which Hampson’s wife, Dorothy, had mused upon in church.
With Hampson’s superbly drawn, brightly coloured dummy in his hands – full to the brim with imaginative adventures – Morris now had something to show potential publishers, and he began the long slog up and down Fleet Street. Then, in September 1949, he received a telegram from Hulton Press, publishers of Picture Post, which read ‘De nitely interested – do not approach any other publisher’. And so, early in 1950, contracts were signed – and copyrights were forfeited. But this was a birth, and for now at least, a cause for celebration.
A studio was set up in a ramshackle old bakery in Churchtown, near Southport, and Hampson set about assembling a team of artists: Joan Porter, Greta Tomlinson, Harold Johns, Jocelyn Thomas and Bruce Cornwall. (At various times Eric Eden, Max Dunlop, Don Harley, Keith Watson and Gerry Palmer would also work for the studio.)
Hampson’s father, now retired from the police force, became a willing general helper, as well as the very recognisable model for the Controller of the Space-Fleet, Sir Hubert Guest. Indeed, the characters in the strip, often based on real people, were completely believable human beings, and family members and studio artists alike were expected to model for the drawings and pose for photographs, in order to ensure the accuracy of each frame. Similarly, the futuristic technology was thoroughly thought out and designed to look as though it would work. Intense research, model making, and a vast reference library, were all employed to this end.
At this stage, Hampson not only carried overall responsibility for all the art work on Eagle, drew ‘Dan Dare’, ‘Great Adventurer’, and various other strips and pages; he also wrote the stories. Many ‘Dan Dare’ fans believe that the multi-dimensional magic of early ‘Dan Dare’ stories, The Venus Story and The Red Moon Story, communicated as powerfully at a written level as they did at a richly visual one; and that this quality was lost to some degree when, through sheer pressure of work, Hampson was nally forced to stop writing all his own material.
Eagle ourished, and the rst print run sold every one of its 900,000 copies. nsurprising perhaps – because Britain had never seen anything like this before. In a decade of technological pessimism (the bomb, the cold war, etcetera), here was a comic with stories that were optimistic, intensely colourful and richly detailed, both visually and in their story line. And with the possibility of space travel fast becoming a reality, they contained the irresistible combination of realistic contemporary heroes ghting evil and tyranny in an exciting, imaginative and entirely believable parallel world.
Before long it became clear that larger premises were essential, and it was decided to move the whole studio closer to Hultons in London. And so, early in 1950, the Morrises, the Hampsons (including Frank’s parents) and the entire studio team, moved south to Epsom, in Surrey. However, in 1959, things began to go wrong, Hultons having been taken over by Odhams, a rival publisher.
While recognising the success of ‘Dan Dare’ as vital to Eagle, the executives at Odhams did not understand that such high quality work could only be maintained through the working system evolved by Hampson and his team. They viewed this as hugely expensive and wasteful and, amidst great personal turmoil for Hampson, the studio was disbanded. The golden age of ‘Dan Dare’ was at an end and, powerless without a copyright, Hampson could only disassociate himself from the changes, which he knew would lead to the diminution of his creation.
For many years, the very name ‘Dan Dare’ remained anathema to Frank Hampson, never to be mentioned in his presence. But the space hero had an international band of followers dedicated to his creator. Attempts to contact him were usually rmly ignored, but then, unaccountably, towards the end of 1973 he began, just occasionally, to respond. In 1975, he was invited by Denis Gi ord to attend the major biennial awards festival in Lucca, Italy, the ‘Mecca’ for devotees of strip cartoons. With some misgivings, he decided to go, taking a selection of the original artwork with him. He had no expectation of anything special, but he was feted and presented with the Yellow Kid Award, the only English artist to have achieved this; and was honoured with a further award, which had been created especially for him, acknowledging him as ‘Prestigioso Maestro’, ‘The best writer and illustrator of strip cartoons since the end of World War Two’. The Ally Sloper Award soon followed and, suddenly, ‘Dan Dare’ was big news again. Reprints of the stories were produced, articles appeared in the national press, Eagle comic was relaunched (if brie y), and there were interviews on television. Hampson died on 8 July 1985 but, as he had predicted, ‘Dan Dare’ lived on. The character that in uenced a whole generation of boys had entered the English language and been recognised, in the words of Terry Jones, as ‘One of the great creations of Twentieth Century imaginative literature’. The reason for this is not di cult to nd. Look at the best of the strips of the 1950s, and you will see technology that still appears fresh, futuristic and workable. Look at the trouble taken to draw the re ections on the surface of a helmet, and you will get some idea of the care and dedication that went into a product that respected its readers, and was determined to give them the best. Look at the vision of a world united as a force for good under the nited Nations and see the post-war optimism that typi ed the decade, and still has huge resonance and relevance today. There is no doubt that Hampson was a genius of the genre. As author Professor Wolf Mankovit z said of him, ‘Frank is, without doubt, the creator of a new 21st Century mythology – a great artist in this extraordinary medium’.
153
OLD MOTHER H BBARD
Acrylic on card
8 5 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: A Second Ladybird Book of Nursery Rhymes , Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1966, page 46
In 1964 Ladybird Books commissioned Frank Hampson to illustrate The Stories of Our Christmas Customs. He was then asked to complete the illustrations for nine further titles including the three Nursery Rhymes books [153 ]. Although of widely di erent subjects these illustrations exhibit the same attention to detail and accuracy that are evident in his ‘Dan Dare’ work for Eagle magazine.
DIG’S PARALYSING PISTOL ASTO NDS Signed and dated ‘30 June 1950’
I’LL KILL THE MEKON IF ANY TREEN MAKES A FALSE MO E –RO ND ’EM P CHAPS!
Signed Ink and watercolour
20 14 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Frank Hampson Illustrated: Eagle, ‘ Dan Dare’, vol 2, issue 1, page 2
156
SORRY DIG! NOTHING DOING HE’S ALL MINE. TAKE O ER THE SHIP. Ink and watercolour 20 14 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Frank Hampson Illustrated: Eagle, ‘ Dan Dare’, vol 1, issue 22, page 2
RONALD SEARLE
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE HRWS (1920-2011)
Equally inspired by a wide range of experience and a great knowledge of the history of caricature, Ronald Searle honed an incisive graphic skill to develop an unparalleled graphic oeuvre, an oeuvre that has immortalised him as one of the most popular and in uential cartoonist-illustrators of all time.
For a biography of Ronald Searle, please refer to The Illustrators, 2018, page 94.
For essays on various aspects of Ronald Searle’s achievement, see The Illustrators, 1999, pages 228-230; and The Illustrators, 2000, pages 40-42.
Chris Beetles Gallery published Russell Davies’s Ronald Searle. In this 2003 edition of the 1990 biography, Russell Davies and Ronald Searle added corrections and brought up to date the exhibitions list and bibliography. Chris Beetles Gallery also held the major tribute exhibition, ‘Ronald Searle Remembered’, in May-June 2012. It was accompanied by a 200 page fully-illustrated catalogue, containing newly researched essays and notes.
157
A STRANGE PROCESSION SEEN PASSING INTO SAINT JAMES’ THIS DAY
Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘Novembr 24 1951’ twice Ink and watercolour
9 ¾ 5 INCHES
Reverse of original frame inscribed ‘With love from Kaye and Ronald Searle’
Signed
Watercolour and bodycolour with ink and pencil 19 ½ 13 INCHES
Illustrated: Design for Lemon Hart Rum advertising campaign
159
LEMON HART B LL
Dated ‘July 22’ on reverse Ink with bodycolour 14 13 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Probably in This Week , 22 July 1956
JJ B HANDELSMAN
John Bernard Handelsman (1922-2007)
B Handelsman achieved great popularity on both sides of the Atlantic as a cartoonist for The New Yorker, Punch and Playboy. Though perhaps best known in the K as the creator of the strip, ‘Freaky Fables’, which ran for 11 years in Punch, his meticulous line and particularly the sharp, dry wit of his captions stood him out as one of the nest and most memorable New Yorker cartoonists of the twentieth century.
For a biography of J B Handelsman, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 196.
161
YO J ST SHOW P HERE ILLEGALLY AND E PECT S TO TELL YO ABO T CORN?
Signed
Ink and watercolour
6 6 INCHES
Illustrated: The New Yorker , 18 November 1996, page 76
162
I BET YO ’RE GLAD YO GOT O T OF POLITICS TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH YO R FAMILY
Signed
Ink and watercolour
6 ¼ 8 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: The New Yorker , 13 April 1998, page 53
163
SORRY – HE’S CHANGED HIS MIND AGAIN. STRIPES ON THE ZEBRA, SPOTS ON THE GIRAFFE, NO STARS ON THE LION, AND MAKE THE ELEPHANT BIGGER AND THE AMOEBA SMALLER
Signed Ink and watercolour
7 ¾ 7 INCHES
Illustrated: The New Yorker , 16 November 1992, page 60
164
WE CAN BE PRO D OF O R LITTLE ATTILA. HE HAS TOTALLY ABSORBED THE H N ETHIC
Signed Ink and watercolour
7 ½ 7 INCHES
Illustrated: The New Yorker , 28 September 1992, page 93
NORMAL THELWELL
Norman Thelwell (1923-2004)
norman Thelwell is arguably the most popular cartoonist to have worked in Britain since the Second World War. Though almost synonymous with his immortal subject of little girls and their fat ponies, his work is far more wide ranging, perceptive – and indeed prescient – than that association suggests. For a biography of Normal Thelwell, please refer to The Illustrators, 2020, page 154.
Having mounted major exhibitions of the work of Thelwell in 1989 and 1991, Chris Beetles encouraged further interest in the artist in 2009 with ‘The De nitive Thelwell’ and its accompanying catalogue. The 100-page catalogue surveys all aspects of his career, through 177 illustrations, an appreciation, a biographical chronology and a full bibliography.
165 (left)
GI E FRED A SHO T AS YO GO BY –HE’S DOING THE TRAFFIC CENS S
Signed
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
11 9 INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 25 August 1954, page 251
166 (below) CARRIED OFF
Signed Ink
4 ¾ 3 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Thelwell’s Sporting Prints by Norman Thelwell , Methuen: London, 1984, Preliminary drawing for plate 2
167 NO CAMPING
Signed Watercolour with ink, bodycolour and pencil 13 18 ¼ INCHES
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour
6 ½ 7 ½ INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Norman Thelwell Illustrated: Punch , 29 December 1965, page 976; Norman Thelwell, The Effluent Society , London: Methuen & Co, 1971, page 85
169
HE FO GHT AT MOLINEA , WHITE HART LANE AND ROKER PARK. THEN GOT WO NDED ON SPION COP
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour with crayon
6 7 ½ INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Norman Thelwell Illustrated: Punch , 15 November 1967, page 735
170
COME ON! WHICH OF YO LOT SHO TED ‘HE’S BEEN ON STRIKE ALL SEASON’?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and zippatone
7 12 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Norman Thelwell
171 THE DROP IN GATES IS GETTING SERIO S
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour with pencil 8 ½ 11 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Norman Thelwell
Illustrated: Punch , 31 January 1962, page 198
172
I CAN REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN WE GOT THEM PASSED DOWN TO S
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour with crayon 13 11 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Norman Thelwell Illustrated: Punch , 3 November 1965, page 652
173
CALL YO RSELF A S PPORTER?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour with crayon
7 10 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of Norman Thelwell
Illustrated: Punch , 10 January 1968, page 53; Norman Thelwell, The Effluent Society , London: Methuen & Co, 1971, page 95
JUDITH KERR
Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr OBE (1923-2019)
Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr OBE, known as Judith Kerr, was a German-born British author and illustrator of children’s books. Since the late 1960’s her works have captured the imagination of millions of children worldwide, and continue to charm readers with tales of feline misadventure.
Judith Kerr was born on 14 June 1923 in Berlin, Germany. Her father was a writer and theatre critic and her mother was a composer. She had an older brother, Michael. Both of her parents were from German-Jewish families, though Judith and Michael were not raised in a religious household. She attributed her initial inspiration for writing to her father. In the years leading up to the Second World War he was an open critic of the Nazi Party, and Judith recalled the impact of his books being burned in Germany.
In 1933 the family ed Berlin to Switzerland and then France, before arriving in London as refugees in 1936, and during the war, Judith worked as a nurse for the Red Cross. From 1945 she won a scholarship to study at the Central School of Arts & Crafts. She exhibited an architectural drawing titled The Scullery at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1948, as well as showing landscape paintings there in the two following years. She taught art for a short period before being hired by the BBC as a script writer and editor. It was here, that she met her husband Nigel ‘Tom’ Kneale, and they were married in 1954.
In 1958 they had their rst child, Tacy, and two years later a son, Matthew. The children were pivotal to Judith’s career, as she began to write books when they were beginning to read. Her rst book The Tiger who Came to Tea was written following a trip to the zoo with her young daughter. It was retold many times before Nigel encouraged Judith to write it down. This, along with the illustrations for the book, took just over a year. It was published in 1968 and to this day remains one of the most popular and best-selling children’s books of all time.
Mog the Forgetful Cat followed in 1970, the rst book in what was to prove an iconic series. There are a total of 20 books in the ‘Mog’ series, published between 1970-2019. The beloved tabby was based on Judith’s own cats that would often sit on her lap while she worked; and the names of the characters in the book are indirectly based on her family.
Throughout the 1970’s Judith published the Out of Hitler Time trilogy, consisting of When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit (1971), Bombs on Aunt Dainty (1975) and A Small Person Far Away (1978). These works are semi-autobiographical and re ect on her own experiences as a child during the Second World War, as well as acting to educate future generations of children about the Holocaust. Judith’s husband died in 2006, and she continued to work as hard as ever from her home and studio in Barnes, London. She embarked on book tours and signings, and regularly gave talks at literary festivals.
In 2012 she was appointed OBE for services to children’s literature and Holocaust education, and in 2016 the Book Trust gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Judith Kerr died in May 2019. Just a week before, she had been named ‘Illustrator of the Year’ by the British Book Awards. She is survived by her two children Tacy and Matthew, and her grandchildren.
In 2023, the year Judith Kerr would have turned 100, there were many events held in tribute to her. A play based on the ‘Mog’ series was produced at The Rep theatre, Birmingham, and toured the K. In May, HarperCollins published Judith Kerr’s Creatures: A Celebration of Her Life and Work. On Christmas Eve, a television adaptation of Mog’s Christmas premiered in the K and in 2024 it won the British Animation Award for Best Long Form animated lm.
The archive of Judith Kerr’s original illustrations is held by Seven Stories in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The current exhibitions of her work there include ‘Judith Kerr’s Kitchen’ and ‘Mog, the Forgetful Cat’ (2024).
MOG AND THE SLEEPING CHILD
The character of Mog was inspired by the many cats that Judith Kerr kept as pets throughout her adult life. They would sit on her lap while she illustrated in her home and studio in Barnes, London. As a great lover of felines, it is no surprise that her most famous characters are the tiger (of Who Came to Tea) and the cat, Mog.
Judith Kerr’s son Matthew wrote: ‘ nlike some other children’s books about pets, my mother’s books were not actually about people, represented as speaking animals, but were based on something tangibly true – a cat’s view of the world. That has doubtless played a part in their enduring appeal over the years.’
SLEEPING
ARNOLD ROTH
Arnold Roth (Born 1929)
‘Arnold Roth is surely the most imaginative and humorous graphic of this day or any other day. Even Max Beerbohm at his best would have to take a back seat.’
(George Plimpton, Paris Review)
For a biography of Arnold Roth, please refer to The Illustrators, 2015, page 158.
‘Now and then we would have a glimpse of Madonna in tank top and very short shorts, jogging around the track with her trainer. For years, we would see Jacqueline Onassis running alone, wearing a brimmed white hat and white gloves on hot days and a black knit cap and black gloves in the cold. When she died, in 1994, the track was supposed to be named for her. A sign went up on the Reservoir fence, but “Onassis” was misspelled and after a few days it was taken down, never to reappear.’
Lillian Ross, The New Yorker, 21 & 28 August 2000, page 82
175 JOGGING I
Signed
Ink and watercolour
12 11 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: The New Yorker , 21 & 28 August 2000, page 82, ‘The Sporting Life: Jogging’ by Lillian Ross
‘For thousands of Manhattan apartment dwellers, including me, the running track around the Central Park Reservoir is a lifesaver. It's our compulsion, our obsession, our drug. It gives us our daily doses of light-headedness, rm-footedness, and delusions of immortality.’
Lillian Ross, The New Yorker, 21 & 28 August 2000, page 82
JOGGING II Signed Ink and watercolour 10 8 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: The New Yorker , 21 & 28 August 2000, page 82, ‘The Sporting Life: Jogging’ by Lillian Ross
177
GO ON A WATER TASTING TRIP THRO GH INDIA
Signed
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
7 10 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: B L Andrews, Digging Your Own Grave: Over 350 Foolproof Ways to Totally Screw Up Your Life , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994, page 11
B L Andrews, Digging Your Own Grave: Over 350 Foolproof Ways to Totally Screw Up Your Life, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994
178
ORDER S SHI AT A R RAL DINER
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 ½ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: B L Andrews, Digging Your Own Grave: Over 350 Foolproof Ways to Totally Screw Up Your Life , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994, page 24
179
TEACH YO R DOG HOW TO EAT FROM YO R PLATE AT THE DINNER TABLE
Signed Inscribed with title below mount Ink
5 ½ 9 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: B L Andrews, Digging Your Own Grave: Over 350 Foolproof Ways to Totally Screw Up Your Life , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994, page 74
180 GO H NTING WEARING A F R COAT
Signed
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
7 ¾ 10 INCHES
Illustrated: B L Andrews, Digging Your Own Grave: Over 350 Foolproof Ways to Totally Screw Up Your Life , New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994, page 13
Signed
Inscribed with title below mount Ink and watercolour 16 12 INCHES
Illustrated: The Southampton Review , vol VI, no 1, Spring 2012, ‘An Artist’s Dilemma: Lines I Wish I’d Delivered’ by Arnold Roth
181
SNEAKIN’ P ON ME, EH?!!
W C FIELDS ON N MERO S OCCASIONS
ED SOREL
Edward Sorel (born 1929)
Edward Sorel’s clever and unforgiving satire is the product of a lifetime spent observing and criticising the unpleasant reality of the American Dream. His experiences of recent history from the Great Depression to Al-Qaeda, and his disdain for the greasy politics in between, have lent his cartoons a formidable bite that those his junior rarely match.
For a biography of Ed Sorel, please refer to The Illustrators, 2020, page 202.
182 JOHN MILTON AND FRIEND
Signed with initials Ink and watercolour 16 ½ 11 ¾ INCHES
Similar to The New Yorker , 2 June 2008, ‘A Critic at Large, Return to Paradise, The Enduring relevance of Milton’, by Jonathan Rosen
183
THE LAST FLOSSING
Signed, inscribed with title, numbered ‘13/20’ and dated 11/09
Hand-coloured etching
8 12 INCHES
From an edition of 20
ROY GERRARD
Roy Gerrard (1935-1997)
Roy Gerrard was best known for his delightful picture books, which ‘charmed children with ... bouncy rhymes and thumb-shaped charac ters acting out their adventures – and misadventures – in sumptuous period settings’ (Wolfgang Saxon, The New York Times, 13 August 1997, ‘Obituary’).
For a biography on Roy Gerrard, please refer to The Illustrators, 2015, page 246.
184
WINTER STROLL
Signed Watercolour
9 ¼ 7 ¼ INCHES
Drawn for but not illustrated in Roy Gerrard, The Favershams , London: Victor Gollancz, 1982
185 IN THE DAISIES
Signed Watercolour 7 ¼ 9 INCHES
Drawn for but not illustrated in Roy Gerrard, The Favershams , London: Victor Gollancz, 1982
TIMOTHY BIRDSALL
Timothy Birdsall (1936-1963)
Timothy Birdsall was a highly inventive cartoonist and a ne, detailed draughtsman, who achieved national recognition during his short career as resident cartoonist on the BBC show That Was the Week That Was. Had his life not been tragically cut short by leukaemia at the age of just 27, Timothy Birdsall would surely be mentioned alongside names such as Ronald Searle and Rowland Emett as one of the most popular British cartoonists of the twentieth-century.
Timothy Birdsall was born in Cambridge on 10 May 1936. He attended Cambridge niversity, where he demonstrated his early artistic talent by illustrating the literary magazine Granta. After graduating from Cambridge, his rst work as a professional cartoonist was a regular strip for Variety magazine in 1957 and 1958. In 1960, he moved to London and joined The Sunday Times, where he began drawing the front-page pocket cartoon ‘Little Cartoon by Timothy’ until 1962. From 1962, Birdsall began drawing regular political cartoons and caricatures for Spectator and Private Eye. In late 1962, Timothy Birdsall joined the cast of the BBC’s satirical television show That Was the Week That Was, drawing live on set as the resident cartoonist. Timothy Birdsall died of leukaemia on 10 June 1963.
186 (above right)
DE GA LLE & DE P SSY-CAT WENT TO SEA IN A BEA TIF L PEA-GREEN BATEA ...
Inscribed with title below mount
Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
187 (right)
THEY TOOK THEIR SCHEMES AND IMPERIAL DREAMS
WRAPPED P IN A £5 NATO
Inscribed with title below mount
Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
188 (above left) DE GA LLE LOOKED BACK ON THAT TRO BLED WORLD, THE WORLD OF ‘63
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
189 (above right)
O LO ELY FRANCO, O FRANCO MY LO E, LET’S PRETEND I’M NAPOLEON B ... SAID HE, SAID HE ...
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
190 (left)
SAID THE P SSY-CAT – WHAT ABO T ME? – AND YO SILLY OLD OWL, WENT ON P SS TO DE GA LLE, NOW HOW CAN WE SA E YO R FACE?
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
191 (above) FOR MY NEW FRENCH FRANC, MY NEW FRENCH FRANCO WILL GI E ME MY NEW FRENCH BASE ...
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
192 (above right) SO THEY SAILED AWAY, AS NEW LO ERS MAY, IN A MIRAGE MADE FOR TWO ...
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
193 (below left) R NCIBLE CHAT ET L’HIBO
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
194 (below right) ALACK, POOR MAC, LA GHED THE R NCIBLE CHAT ET L’HIBO
Inscribed with title below mount Ink
8 ¾ 11 ¾ INCHES
OWILLIE RUSHTON
William George Rushton (1937-1996)
ne of the architects of the 1960s satire boom, Willie Rushton co-founded the magazine Private Eye, producing its rst cartoons and its layout from his mother’s home in Kensington. He achieved fame as part of the 1962 BBC series, That Was the Week That Was, alongside the likes of David Frost and as a regular panelist on the BBC Radio 4 game show, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, from 1974 until his death. He was the author and illustrator of a number of bestselling books, including How to Play Football: The Art of Dirty Play and Pigsticking: A Joy for Life
For a biography of Willie Rushton, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, pages 182-183.
Nos 195-197 are all illustrated in Dorgan Rushton, The Queen’s English, London: Pelham Books, 1985
First published in 1985 and written by Willie Rushton’s wife, Dorgan, The Queen’s English (High Taw Tawk Prawpah-leah) is a wonderfully silly guide for anyone wanting to learn how to speak like the British pper Classes.
195 HOW LO ELY THE SNOW LOOKS ON THE GARDENER
( HIGH LA GH - LEAR THEH SNAY LAWKS AWN THEH GORDNAH ) Inscribed with title below mount Ink
3 ¾ 4 ½ INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of William Rushton Illustrated: page 53, ‘General chat, Gin-rawl chet’
196 HARRODS ( HAADS )
Signed with initial Ink
4 ¾ 5 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: page 93, ‘Shopping. Shaw-peeing’,
197
SPORTING FI T RES. ( SPAW -TING FEAKS -TIORS ) Ink
6 3 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of William Rushton Illustrated: page 75, ‘Sporting Fixtures, Spaw-ting Feaks-tiors’
198
MONSIE R ‘EATH, LE PRESIDENT WILL SEE YO NOW.
Inscribed with publication details on reverse
Ink 13 x 9 ¼ inches
Illustrated: William Rushton, The Reluctant Euro. Rushton Versus Europe , London: Queen Anne Press, 1980, page 31, ‘Ins and Outs’
HOW TO BE A S CCESSF L DICTATOR
Inscribed with title Ink
11 ½ 8 ½ INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of William Rushton
Illustrated: William Rushton, The Reluctant Euro. Rushton Versus Europe , London: Queen Anne Press, 1980
200 ‘SH T P! I CAN’T HEAR YO ’ ‘WHAT?!?’
Signed Ink
11 ½ 8 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: William Rushton, Pigsticking. A Joy For Life , London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1977, ‘You and The Elements’, page 61
201
ANTHONY B RGESS
Signed with initial and dated 86
Ink
10 6 INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of William Rushton
Illustrated: Independent Magazine , 1986
‘No sooner had I written last week that there is a spectre haunting Europe, and identi ed it as the spectre of vegetarianism, than we all read of a Gallup survey revealing that more than 2,000 people a week are giving up meat in this country alone. Most of them say they are fearful of mad cow disease and other illnesses.
Anti-smokers remain the greatest menace. Much excitement was caused last week by the news that adoption agencies have been instructed to refuse babies to foster parents who smoke.
Vegetarians give more cause for anxiety because many scientists now believe that gaseous emissions given o by these people are responsible in large part for the perceivable fact of global warming, or damage to the ozone layer.’
Daily Telegraph, 29 March 1993, ‘Way of The World’ by Auberon Waugh
202
GASEO S EMISSIONS Signed with initial
4 ¼ 2 ¾ INCHES
Provenance: The Estate of William Rushton
Illustrated: Daily Telegraph , 29 March 1993, ‘Way of The World’ by Auberon Waugh
NOEL FORD
Noel Ford (1942-2019)
noel Ford was born on 22 December 1942 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Thomas Joseph and Martha Ford. Ford showed an interest in cartooning from an early age, recalling drawing cartoons in chalk on the pavement outside his house when he was a child. He was educated at King Edward I Grammar School in Nuneaton and then, in 1959, enrolled at Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts. However, he decided against a formal artistic education and dropped out a year later.
Noel Ford’s career in cartooning began when he submitted a cartoon to his local newspaper, the Nuneaton Evening Tribune. The editor invited him to contribute a weekly cartoon, which would become known as ‘Ford’s Eye iew’. In 1971, he married Margaret, with whom he would have a daughter. The same year, whilst continuing to contribute to the Nuneaton Evening Tribune and work full-time in the screen printing department of a local company, Ford signed up to an artistic agency, Space Syndications, and began submitting an increasing number of cartoons for publications and newspapers such as the Mirror, Sun, Weekend and Titbits. In 1973, he became of member of The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain, and the following year received a commission to produce the twelve cartoons for the 1976 Guinness Calendar. This success enabled Noel Ford to leave his employment and, in February 1975, work as a cartoonist full-time.
In the autumn of 1976, Noel Ford had his rst cartoon accepted by Punch Soon after, he stopped working through an agency and became one of Punch’s regular cartoonists under the editor, Bill Hewison. For Punch, he produced hundreds of cartoons, including a number of double page spreads and front covers. In 1979, Ford became one of the Daily Star’s two editorial cartoonists, a role he ful lled on a freelance basis for the next fourteen years.
The rst of Noel Ford’s cartoon collections, Deadly Humorous, was published in 1984. Four years later, his collection of gol ng cartoons, Golf Widows, was published in the K and Australia. This would later be followed by Cricket Widows (1989) and Business Widows (1990), a series that was successful enough to have been translated into several languages. In 1988, he wrote and illustrated his rst children’s book, Nuts. In 1989, he began contributing cartoons to the Church Times, beginning an association that would continue for the rest of his life.
Noel Ford was a founder member of The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (PCO) and a member of the British Cartoonists’s Association (BCA). In 2016, he was elected Chairman of The Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain. He was also an active organiser and director of the annual Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.
Noel Ford was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2017, and died on 27 September 2019.
IT’S NOT SO BAD HERE PRO IDED YO KEEP YO R NOSE CLEAN AND GI E ALL YO R BONIOS TO THE PIT B LL TERRIER
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
7 ¼ 9 INCHES
Illustrated: Private Eye , 12 June 1991, page 43
205
IT SAYS O R L GGAGE HAS BEEN WASHED P ON ANOTHER ISLAND, 600 MILES AWAY
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 ¼ 11 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 23 January 1991
206 (above left) O T OF ORDER
TRY OTHER END
Signed Ink
8 ½ 7 INCHES
Illustrated: Punch
207 (above right) KEEP WALKING – DON’T T RN ARO ND OR YO ’RE LOST
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
7 ½ 8 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Punch , 12 June 1991, page 32
208 (right) CHEER P – J ST THINK WHAT YO R OSTEOPATH WO LD CHARGE YO FOR THIS
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 10 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: The Cartoonist , 1993
TONY HUSBAND
Tony Husband (1950-2023)
Best-known as the creator of the ‘Yobs’ strip that appeared in Private Eye, Tony Husband was one of the most popular cartoonists of the past fty years, immediately recognisable for his simple style and cutting social satire. Tony Husband was born in Blackpool on 28 August 1950, the eldest son of Ron Husband, a managing executive of Great niversal Stores, and era (neé Fletcher). Growing up in the village of Gee Cross, near Hyde, Greater Manchester, he attended the local Holy Trinity primary school, before moving on to Green eld Street secondary school in Hyde. He began drawing cartoons at the age of 16, he was self-taught and in uenced by his reading of Punch and Private Eye
After leaving school, he joined an advertising agency in Manchester as an o ce junior. In 1968, he had his rst cartoons published in the in-house magazine for Burlington World, one of the agency’s clients. After selling two cartoons in one week, to Weekend and the Daily Mirror in 1971, he began work as a freelance cartoonist whilst working during the days as a window dresser for Burton’s menswear shops and then as a designer at a Manchester jewellers. In 1984, he quit his job to become a full-time cartoonist. In 1985, he published the ‘Yobs’ strip in Private Eye for the rst time. This would become one of his most famous and popular creations, and it would appear in Private Eye every fortnight for the next 38 years. Over the course of his career, his cartoons and strips appeared in publications such as Punch, The Oldie, The Times, Playboy, Men Only, Spectator and Readers Digest. His cartoons also appeared as a hugely successful greetings card range with Hallmark and Carlton Cards. In addition to his work as a cartoonist, Tony Husband founded and co-edited a children’s comic, Oink!, and from 1989 to 1991 co-wrote the children’s television show Round the Bend! His work in television also included the Friday night children’s show Hangar 17, which ran for three seasons from 1992 to 1994, as well as writing an episode of Chucklevision (1994). He also co-wrote and designed the costumes, scenery and slides for Save the Human, a children’s show that was staged at Manchester Opera House in 1990.
Tony Husband has written and illustrated dozens of books, including Use Your Head (1984), Animal Husbandry (1986) and Another Pair of Underpants (1995). In 2014, inspired by his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s, he published Take Care Son, The Story of My Dad and His Dementia. Following the book’s publication, he became an active campaigner for dementia, working extensively around the country on projects to raise awareness and understanding. His next book, From a Dark Place: How A Family Coped with Drug Addiction (2017), chronicled his son Paul’s battle with heroin addiction. In December 2019, he illustrated Libby Moore’s After…: The Impact of Child Abuse. He has published a series of books ‘The ps and Downs’, such as The Ups and Downs of Being a Grandparent (2015)
and The Ups and Downs of Being a Husband (2016). In 2020, Tony toured the country with poet Ian McMillan, performing a show of poetry, cartooning and improvisation, called ‘A Cartoon History of Here’.
Tony Husband won many awards and accolades during his career. He was named Gag Cartoonist of the Year in 1986 and 1987, and won Strip Cartoonist of the Year in 1988. In 2005, Tony Husband received The Pont Award by The Cartoon Art Trust for depicting the British Way of Life, as well as a mention in Who’s Who. The following year, he became Cartoonist in Residence at the Lowry in Salford. He was also the o cial cartoonist for The Groucho Club in London.
Tony Husband died of a heart attack on Westminster Bridge on 18 October 2023 whilst on his way to a Private Eye party. He is survived by his wife Carole, whom he married in 1976, and his son Paul.
209 I THINK WE’ E HAD ENO GH SE FOR ONE MARRIAGE, DON’T YO GEORGE?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink; 10 ¾ 7 ¼ INCHES
211 IT WAS BRENDA’S LAST WISH, THAT I IN ITE O R CLOSEST FRIENDS RO ND AND EAT HER
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
9 11 INCHES
212
WHAT ARE YO WAGGING YO R TAIL FOR YO CHEERF L BASTARD?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
9 ½ 13 INCHES
213 IF THAT’S DEATH I’M NOT IN Signed and inscribed with title Ink
8 6 ¼ INCHES
214 OK, IT’S GETTING LATE WILL YO GO HOME, NOW Signed and inscribed with title Ink
6 ½ 9 INCHES
215 RIGHT, DO YO FIND ME ... A. ERY SE Y, B. SE Y, OR C. NOT ERY SE Y?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
5 7 ½ INCHES
Exhibited: ‘Comedy and Commentary’, Mottisfont, Hampshire, January-April 2020
7. Ja e Pi k ey
7 JANE PINKNEY
Lesley Jane Pinkney (née Magee) (born 1948)
J ane Pinkney’s nely rendered depictions reveal a variety of anthropomorphic narratives steeped in nostalgia and charm. Her work can be rmly situated within the tradition of illustrative art, and her name comfortably coupled with those of Beatrix Potter, Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham.
For a biography of Jane Pinkney, please refer to The Illustrators, 2011, pages 338-340.
Nos 216-234 are all signed and executed in watercolour Nos 216-218 are all illustrated in Margaret Greaves, Mouse Mischief, London: Marilyn Malin Books/Andre Deutsch, 1989, [ npaginated]
217 SHE AND PIPKIN TOOK T RNS ON THE ROCKING HORSE
6 ¾ 7 ½ INCHES
KITCHEN 9 4 ¾ INCHES
7. Jane Pinkney
220 SHE HAD SO MANY CHILDREN, SHE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO
5 ¼ 4 INCHES
Illustrated: For there was an Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe , [unpublished]
222
LADY AND HER DOG
3 2 ½ INCHES
221
FO R AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS
3 6 INCHES
Illustrated: Sing a Song of Sixpence , [unpublished]
In the early 1990s, Jane Pinkney embarked upon an ambitious compendium of Nursery Rhymes, titled Mouse Rhymes, for Pan Macmillan Children’s Books. The collection was to be comprised of three stories, Munch Munch, Come and Play, and To Bed, To Bed. However, in 1998, she decided to abandon the project and ‘never paint again’, in order to spend more time with her family.
Nos 223-234 were drawn for the un nished Mouse Rhymes project.
223 MARY, MARY, Q ITE CONTRARY
4 5 INCHES
226 B SY BEDTIME 4 ¼ 3 INCHES 224 LITTLE BOY BL E
3 3 INCHES
227 LITTLE POLLY FLINDERS
3 ¾ 2 ¾ INCHES
225 PEASE P DDING HOT 3 3 INCHES
228 TO BED, TO BED SAYS SLEEPY-HEAD 6 ½ 12 ¾ INCHES
229
MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB
3 ½ 3 INCHES
230 BAKING
2 ½ 3 INCHES
231 FO R & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS BAKED IN A PIE
3 ¼ 3 ½ INCHES
232
JACK SPRAT
Signed
3 ½ 2 ¾ INCHES
233
SIMPLE SIMON MET A PIE MAN GOING TO THE FAIR
2 ¾ 3 ¼ INCHES
234
PAT-A-CAKE, PAT-A-CAKE, BAKER’S MAN
4 ¾ 3 ¾ INCHES
8. Michael forema
8 MICHAEL FOREMAN
Michael Foreman, OBE RDI (born 1938)
While Michael Foreman is perhaps best known as one of the most outstanding contemporary creators of children’s books, he is a wide-ranging artist, illustrating literary classics and working as a painter.
For a biography of Michael Foreman, please refer to The Illustrators, 2018, pages 132-133.
This year has been a busy one for Michael Foreman. His highlights from 2024 include:
January: The release of Michael’s latest adventure tale Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster.
May: Chris Beetles Gallery held an exhibition of Michael Foreman’s classic illustrations.
September: The release of his latest collaboration with Michael Morpurgo, Cobweb
November: He was awarded the J M Barrie Lifetime Achievement Award by Action for Children’s Arts in recognition of his signi cant contribution to children’s literature.
Nos 235-247 are all illustrated in Terry Jones, The Sea Tiger, London: Pavilion Books, 1994, [unpaginated]
235 THE SEA TIGER
Signed and inscribed with title Watercolour with bodycolour and pencil 12 ½ 17 ½ INCHES Illustrated: dust jacket
THE SEA TIGER
The Sea Tiger, tells the story of a tiger who constantly tells lies. The other animals in the jungle decide to enrol the help of a wizard who lives in the mountains and send the monkey o to consult him. Monkey brings back a potion to cure the tiger of his romancing and puts it in Tiger’s ear while he is sleeping. However, when the tiger wakes, he tells the other animals he is planning his next expedition to the bottom of the sea, so they think he is still lying and the magical potion hasn’t worked. But it has, the potion means that all the lies he tells come true, so to Tiger’s dismay he ies across the country and down into the sea, where he is eventually saved by some shermen. ‘And he never told any lies, ever again.’
236
THE TIGER REPLIED THAT HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO THE MOON, WHERE HE KEPT A STORE OF TIGER-CHEESE
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour
5 ¼ 4 ¾ INCHES
237
SO THEY SENT THE MONKEY OFF TO FIND THE WIZARD WHO LI ED IN THE SNOW-CAPPED MO NTAINS
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour
6 ½ 5 ½ INCHES
238 T FOR TIGER
Signed with initials
Watercolour with bodycolour
1 ½ 1 ¼ INCHES
8. Michael Foreman
240
239
HE FO ND THE WIZARD B SY
PREPARING SPELLS
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour
5 ¼ 5 ¾ INCHES
THE MONKEY CREPT P ERY CA TIO SLY TO THE TIGER AND CAREF LLY PO RED A LITTLE OF THE POTION FIRST INTO ONE OF THE TIGER’S EARS AND THEN INTO THE OTHER
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour 5 ½ 5 ¾ INCHES
241
HE WAS A BIT S RPRISED TO FIND ALL OF THE ANIMALS OF THE J NGLE STANDING RO ND HIM IN A CIRCLE
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour 5 ½ 5 ¼ INCHES
242
HE SPREAD O T HIS LEGS AND SOARED P HIGH ABO E THE TREES AND ACROSS THE TOP OF THE J NGLE
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour 10 7 ½ INCHES
8. Michael Foreman
8. Michael Foreman
THE WIZARD LOOKED P AT THE TIGER FLYING O ERHEAD AND SMILED TO HIMSELF
Signed and inscribed with book title
Watercolour with bodycolour 10 15 INCHES
244
... DOWN AND DOWN HE SANK, RIGHT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, AND ALL THE FISH CAME P TO HIM AND STARED
Signed and inscribed with book title
Watercolour with bodycolour
7 ¾ 7 ½ INCHES
245
... HE SWAM P AND P, AND J ST AS HE WAS R NNING O T OF BREATH HE REACHED THE S RFACE
Signed
Watercolour with bodycolour
6 ½ 6 INCHES
8. Michael Foreman
LOOK! A SEA TIGER!
Signed and inscribed with book title Watercolour with bodycolour 10 15 INCHES
247 AS SOON AS THEY LANDED HE TORE P THE NET, AND LEAPT O T OF THE BOAT
Signed and inscribed with book title Watercolour with bodycolour 10 15 INCHES
8. Michael Foreman
FAIRY TALES AND FANTASTIC STORIES
Signed, inscribed ‘Cover “Fantastic Stories” by Terry Jones’ and dated 1992
Watercolour with bodycolour 12 15 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Terry Jones, Fairy Tales and Fantastic Stories , London: Pavilion Books, 1997, dust jacket
CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATORS
TONY ROSS
Tony Ross (born 1938)
Born in 1938, Tony Ross is one of Britain’s most proli c and cherished illustrators and authors. He is most well-known for the Little Princess books, illustrating Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry series, and for his long-term collaboration with the author, David Walliams on award-winning titles such as Gangsta Granny and The Ice Monster
249
SOFIA SOFA
Watercolour and ink
8 12 INCHES
Illustrated: David Walliams, The World’s Worst Children 1 , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2016, pages 256 -257
250 PET LA PERPET AL-MOTION
Watercolour and ink
8 12 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: David Walliams, The World’s Worst Children 1 , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2016, pages 96-97
251 WINDY MINDY
Watercolour and ink with bodycolour
8 12 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: David Walliams, The World’s Worst Children 1 , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2016, pages 214- 215
Drawn for but not illustrated in David Walliams, Grandpa’s Great Escape , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2017, front cover
254
RATB RGER
Watercolour and ink
9 ¾ 6 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: David Walliams, Ratburger , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2012, front cover
256 A MASSI E HERD OF ELEPHANTS!
Watercolour and ink
9 18 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: David Walliams, The Slightly Annoying Elephant , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2013, [unpaginated]
255
‘BOO!’ ‘ARGH!’
Watercolour and ink
9 ¼ 9 INCHES
Illustrated: David Walliams, The Bear Who Went Boo , London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2015, [unpaginated]
9. Contemporary Illustrators
PETER CROSS
Peter Cross (born 1951)
from 1975, Peter Cross began to emerge as an illustrator of great originality, making his name with books that continue to delight children and adults alike. nwilling to restrict his fertile imagination to two dimensions, he also created a series of eccentric cabinets of curiosities. Such richness and variety were then directed towards advertising and, in particular, to delightful work for the company Wine Rack. Peter’s dry, yet charming visual-verbal wit has reached a wide international public through designs for greetings cards, rst for Gordon Fraser (Hallmark 1995-2000) and then for The Great British Card Company.
For a biography of Peter Cross, please refer to The Illustrators, 2018, page 150.
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Watercolour and ink
4 ¾ 4 INCHES
Nos 257-265 are all greetings card designs for the Gordon Fraser ‘Harbottle Hamster’ range
258 LO E, LO E ME DO
Signed with initials
Watercolour and ink
7 ¾ 6 INCHES
257 HAPPY HAT DAY!
9. Contemporary Illustrators
260
Signed with initials and inscribed with title
Watercolour and ink
11 9 ½ INCHES
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Watercolour and ink
9 6 ¾ INCHES
261 M SICAL CAN
BOOTYF L!
Signed with initials and inscribed with title
Watercolour and ink 11 9 ½ INCHES
262 PIT STOP
263 B ILD MORE HOMES ... AND EAT MORE CAKE
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Watercolour and ink
9 9 INCHES
264 (above) CRATE E PECTATIONS
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Watercolour and ink
7 5 ¼ INCHES
265 (left) PIG TROTTING
INDI ID AL DRESSAGE
Signed with initials and inscribed with title Watercolour and ink
7 ½ 12 INCHES
CARRY AKROYD
Carry Akroyd (born 1953)
Carry Akroyd is a painter-printmaker whose images examine the relationship between humans, landscape and wildlife. Her representations of contemporary agriculture, botany and birds concentrate on colour, shape and balance. She illustrates the ‘Bird of the Month’ column in The Oldie magazine, a compilation of which are published by Bloomsbury under the title A Sparrow’s Life’s as Sweet as Ours. In August 2024 this was reprised in a new book, Swoop, Sing, Perch, Paddle with author John McEwen.
Having achieved an MA in Fine Art from Northampton niversity, Carry Akroyd developed an interest in printmaking, particularly serigraphy, a deceptively simple approach to screenprinting. Scissors or a scalpel are used to create cut-paper stencils to control, where each layer of ink passes through the screen. Where the layers of ink overlap, they create new colours and the image evolves during the process of being made. Living in rural Northamptonshire, where she grew up, Carry’s career has been strongly in uenced by her passion for the British landscape and its wildlife. She became a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in 2000, and was a Council member from 2003 to 2006. In 2017, she was awarded the Terravesta Prize, the top prize at ‘The Natural Eye’ exhibition at the Mall Galleries.
The range of Carry’s work is reproduced in her own books: Natures Powers & Spells, Landscape Change, John Clare and Me (2009) and Found in the Fields (2017). Many images echo John Clare’s poetry in observing how man a ects nature, two hundred years ago and now. A series of prints comprise a touring show that is an introduction to the poet. After 25 years of making and exhibiting images relating to the poetry of John Clare, in 2016 Carry was invited to be President of the John Clare Society.
Carry’s work has been used on several book jackets, and she is the series cover artist for Bloomsbury’s British Wildlife Collection and for Saraband’s Encounters with Nature
Nos 266-271 are all signed, inscribed with title and edition number and dated, silkscreen prints, 8 ½ x 7 ¼ inches and illustrated in Carry Akroyd, John McEwen, Swoop, Sing, Perch, Paddle, London: Bloomsbury, 2024
267
Illustrated: page 89
Illustrated: page 82
266 (above) LITTLE OWL
(below) OSPREY
268 (above) STOCK DO ES
Illustrated: page 122
269 (below) GREAT SPOTTED PECKER
Illustrated: page 21; The Oldie , August 2024, cover
270 (above) WA WINGS
Illustrated: page 20
271 (below) REDSTART
Illustrated: page 118
PAUL COX
Paul William Cox (born 1957)
Paul Cox’s uid, immediate draughtsmanship and vibrant colour make him one of the most enjoyable and versatile of contemporary illustrators. Well known for his warm and witty contributions to hundreds books and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. His vibrant illustrations have become synonymous with such classics as P G Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ and novels by Dylan Thomas and David Lodge. His instantly recognisable illustrations bring humour and lively movement to magazine articles in The Spectator, The Times, Country Life, The Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair and Esquire. As well as designs for stamps, stage sets and murals.He was elected a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 2023.
For a biography of Paul Cox, please refer to The Illustrators, 2022, page 234.
272 PARIS OLYMPICS 2024 LET THE L RY GAMES BEGIN Signed Ink and watercolour 19 ¼ 27 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: GQ , 12 June 2024
273 (left) AGAINST THE FLOW FOR THE ARIO S E PLOITS OF THE NEW YORK CONCIERGE
Signed
Inscribed ‘The Plaza’ below mount
Ink and watercolour
6 ¼ 10 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Avenue Magazine , 6 December 2000
274 (below left) LEAPING ENTH SIASM FOR TENNIS
Signed
Ink and watercolour
10 ¼ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: Private Clubs Magazine , 4 May 1997
275 (below right) HENRY III PLAYING REAL TENNIS AT HAMPTON CO RT
Signed
Ink and watercolour
9 ¼ 10 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Sports Illustrated , 24 October 1990
½ 19 ¼ INCHES
American Showcase , 17 May 2002
277 NEW AND OLD CL B MEMBERS Signed Ink and watercolour 23 16 ½ INCHES Illustrated: Private Clubs Magazine , 17 July 1992
278 (above)
GOLFING HARMONY BLOSSOMS
Signed Ink and watercolour 12 ½ 11 INCHES
Illustrated: Private Clubs Magazine , 12 March 1996
279 (above right)
O TDOOR P RS ITS SAILING AWAY
Signed Ink and watercolour 11 ¾ x 12 inches
Illustrated: Town and Country , 10 February 1997
280 (right)
SILENCE PLEASE ON THE GREEN FOR THE RYDER C P
Signed Ink and watercolour
11 ½ 15 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Ryder Cup Journal , 15 May 1999
9. Contemporary Illustrators
281 RACING POINT TO POINT
Signed Ink and watercolour
7 ½ 7 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Town and Country , 11 February 2005
282 HENRY ALFORD BEM SED WATCHING CLAY SHOOTING AT A WOLSEY LODGE
Signed Ink and watercolour
15 12 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: GQ , 27 December 1993
283
CAMDEN YARD, BALTIMORE HOME OF THE ORIOLES
Signed Ink and watercolour
19 ¾ 14 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Private Clubs Magazine , 6 January 2004
284 TO CHING THE TALISMAN BABE R TH FOR L CK
Signed Ink and watercolour
19 ½ 14 INCHES
Illustrated: Private Clubs Magazine , 6 January 2004
OLIVER JEFFERS
Oliver Je ers MBE (born 1977)
Oliver Je ers’ award-winning picture books comprise just one element of his wide-ranging artistic oeuvre. He also produces gurative paintings, prints, illustrations and installations that are celebrated and exhibited worldwide.
Oliver Je ers was born in Port Hedland, Western Australia, and moved to Belfast in 1979. He learnt to draw by copying the ‘Asterix’ comic book strip, and he credits his early love for painting to John Singer Sargent portraits. He began to seriously consider painting as a career in 1995, when he became runner-up in the Irish News amateur art competition. From that date, he contributed to exhibitions in Belfast, and soon began to design book jackets for local publishing houses. His father was a teacher and encouraged his two sons to attend art schools. Oliver did a foundation year at lster College of Art & Design under the tutelage of Dennis McBride, and went on to study Illustration and isual Communication at the niversity of lster, graduating with a rst class degree in 2001.
During the year 1999-2000, Oliver took a break from university and travelled to Australia and the SA. While based in Sydney, he became a freelance painter and illustrator, working for various magazines, and illustrating for the Lavazza Co ee Company. The results of this sojourn appeared in two sell-out exhibitions in Sydney in 2000: ‘Opposites’ (at the Manley Gallery, as part of the Olympics) and ‘A World with Co ee’ (at the Rocks Festival, sponsored by Lavazza).
Oliver held a number of further exhibitions on his return to Belfast, including two solo shows, ‘The Boys at the Bar’ (The John Hewitt, 2000) and ‘The Session’ (Lyric Theatre, 2003). As co-founder of the art collective, OAR, he mounted ‘9 days in Belfast’ (Cotton Court, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, 2003), ‘Book’ (Lagan Weir Tunnel, 2004; Cities Art and Recovery Festival, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, 2005), and ‘Building’ (The Switch Room, Belfast Festival at Queens, 2005; Project 4, Smithsonian Folk-Life Fest, Washington DC, 2007). He held two further solo shows in Belfast in 2006, and continued to exhibit work in London, Ireland, Australia and the SA.
Developing a passion for the relationship between words and images, Oliver launched the rst of his children’s picture books, How to Catch a Star, at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, in 2001. He was met with great success and more titles followed. Oliver was the o cial illustrator for World Book Day in 2007.
Oliver worked with Studio AKA on an animated short lm adaptation of his second picture book, Lost and Found, which was broadcast on Christmas Eve in 2008. It received over 40 awards, including the BAFTA for Best Animation in 2009. His sixth book The Heart and the Bottle won both the British Book Design and Production Award and the &A Book Illustration Award in 2010 and 2011. From 2010 he began to illustrate books by other authors while continuing to release his own publications.
Oliver married in 2010 and moved into his new studio in Brooklyn, New York in February 2011. In May 2012, he created a print and T advert campaign for Ferrero Kinder Chocolate. He undertook book tours while continuing to work across other practices. In 2014 he began ‘The Dipped Painting Project’, a series of portraits that he would nish and then partially dip into vats of enamel paint. These were completed as performances and were a commentary on memory and loss, both themes that would go on to inform his later books.
In 2015 his son was born, inspiring his book Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth. It debuted at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List in 2017 and in the same year won Time Magazine's Best Book of the Year award in the Young Adult and Children's Books category. It was later adapted into an Emmy award winning animated short lm (2020).
In 2020 Oliver moved back to Northern Ireland, and now splits his time between there and his studio in Brooklyn. He published What We’ll Build: Plans for our Future Together inspired by and following the birth of his second child, a daughter.
In 2022 he was appointed MBE for services to the arts. He designed and released limited edition prints of a lm poster for The Whale, the Oscar award-winning lm, in collaboration with its director Darren Aronofsky.
In 2023 Begin Again was published to critical acclaim. In the same year The Times reported that his books have sold over 14 million copies worldwide. His proli c and varied bodies of recent work are concerned with themes such as the environment and social understanding, and his children’s books are promoted as works for all ages.
In October 2024 HarperCollins launched Oliver’s latest book, Where to Hide a Star. This reunites characters from early books How to Catch a Star (2004) and Lost and Found (2005). This year marks 20 years since his debut children’s book.
Oliver Je ers lives with his wife Suzanne and their two children Harland and Mari in Holywood, County Down.
Nos 285-296 are all
Provenance: the artist’s studio Nos 285-288 are all preliminary drawings for Oliver Je ers, The Heart and The Bottle, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2010, [unpaginated]
5 ½ 5 INCHES
286 (above) WHIZZING BY Ink
10 12 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: front cover and title page
287 (above right) SHE TOOK DELIGHT IN FINDING NEW THINGS ... Signed and inscribed ‘10/11’ Ink
11 15 ½ INCHES
288 (right) ONCE THERE WAS A GIRL
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
9 ½ 15 INCHES
Nos 289-293 are all preliminary drawings for Oliver Je ers, The Way Back Home, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2007, [unpaginated]
289 (above left)
THEY WEREN’T ALONE ANY MORE
Pencil sketch of boy and moon on reverse
Ink 10 10 INCHES
290 (above right) HE FO ND AN AEROPLANE
Ink with pencil
9 12 INCHES
291 (left)
THE BOY SHOWED THE MARTIAN HIS EMPTY PETROL TANK AND THE MARTIAN SHOWED THE BOY HIS BROKEN ENGINE
Ink with pencil
9 10 INCHES
292 HIS FA O RITE PROGRAMME WAS J ST STARTING AND HE SETTLED DOWN TO WATCH Ink with pencil 9 ½ 13 INCHES
293 THEY WERE BOTH FINALLY OFF THE MOON Ink with pencil 13 21 INCHES
Nos 294-296 are all preliminary drawings for Oliver Je ers, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2006, [unpaginated]
294
INSTEAD OF P TTING IT IN HIS MO TH ... HENRY OPENED IT P ...
Signed Ink
10 13 INCHES
295 ... AND BEGAN TO READ
Signed Ink
6 6 ½ INCHES
296 THE MORE HE ATE ... THE SMARTER HE GOT Signed Ink
8 7 INCHES
10. Ed McLachla
ED MCLACHLAN
Edward Rolland McLachlan (1940-2024)
Ed McLachlan, who has died aged 84 after a long illness, was one of Britain’s greatest postwar cartoonists. Possessing a unique sense of humour, his cartoons were at once as deliciously dark and twisted as Charles Addams, as imaginative as William Heath Robinson, as surreal as John Glashan and as quintessentially British as Pont.
Across a career that spanned over 60 years, McLachlan’s immediately recognisable line and his cast of buck-toothed, big-nosed protagonists entertained, shocked and outraged from the pages of Punch, Private Eye, The Oldie and Spectator. Often set in traditional gag cartoon settings, from date nights and o ce boardrooms, to middle-class front rooms and Stannah Stairlifts, his cartoons took the mundane and delivered the hilariously absurd.
One of the most famous examples of McLachlan’s bizarre humour was published in Private Eye’s 10th Anniversary edition in 1971, and features a monstrous hedgehog rushing across a busy road, pulverising an unfortunate car and its occupants as it goes. Giant creatures were often present, creating destruction in otherwise quaintly British scenes. In another cartoon, an enormous dinosaur rampages through a city past an ongoing cricket match, while an exasperated commentator complains that ‘once again we have interruption of play caused by movement behind the bowler’s arm’.
Ed McLachlan was born in Humberstone, Leicestershire, on 22 April 1940. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School, before studying Graphic Design at the Leicester College of Art (now DeMontfort niversity) from 1956 to 1959. While there, he contributed a number of cartoons to his niversity Magazine, Lucifer, and despite pressure from his peers he was initially reluctant to pursue a career in cartooning. pon graduating, he took a job at a local printing company in Leicester, where his talent for drawing was utilised in designing posters. The pressure from colleagues to give cartooning a go did not abate and in 1961, McLachlan was persuaded (by way of a £5 bet) to submit a scrapbook of cartoons to Punch. To his surprise, they bought one for seven guineas, more for an hour’s work than he was earning in a week at the printing o ce. Within weeks they had bought several more, thus beginning a regular contribution to the magazine that would last until it ceased production in 2002.
McLachlan became a freelance cartoonist in 1965, resolving to establish a career by, in his own words, ‘making myself a nuisance, banging on agencies’ doors’. The following year, he began drawing a series of political cartoons for the Sunday Mirror, under the title ‘McLachlan’s iew’. In 1967, he began to contribute cartoons to Private Eye, and the same year, returned to Leicester College of Art as part-time lecturer in Graphics. In 1970, having stepped down from his teaching role, McLachlan left the Sunday Mirror for the Evening Standard as the new political cartoonist. Between 1972 and 1974, he produced a series of pocket cartoons titled ‘Insiders’ for the Daily Mirror. Over the decades he clearly never stopped banging on doors, as his cartoons appeared as far a eld as The Oldie, Spectator, New Statesman, The Big Issue, Saga Magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Salisbury Review, Sunday Telegraph and Mail on Sunday, The New Yorker and Playboy
In 1969, McLachlan wrote and illustrated his rst children’s book, Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings. This was to be the rst of four books about a little boy who owns a magic chalkboard, upon which everything that is drawn becomes real in the Land of Chalk Drawings. In the mid-1970s, the books were adapted into an animated television series, which was rst aired in Canada on the CBC’s Children’s Cinema programme on 5 October 1974, before appearing on British television on IT on 27 March 1976, and running for 24 episodes. The television series was directed by Ivor Wood, best known for his work animating shows such as The Magic Roundabout and The Wombles, and was narrated by Bernard Cribbins. It remained popular in Canada, where it was remade in 2002. McLachlan also wrote and illustrated the children’s books Claude Makes a Change (1979), Magnus and the Land of Lost Property (1985) and The Dragon Who Could Only Breathe Smoke (1985).
Ed McLachlan was also able to turn his illustrative talents to sporting topics, such as Bill Beaumont’s Sporting Rugby (1986) and John Walker’s Chess for Tomorrow’s Champions (1994); and to Jim Slater’s economic Zulu Principle (1992), Investment Made Easy (1994) and How to Become a Millionaire (2000). His love of drawing dogs lent itself to Randy Barker’s Sex Tips for Dogs (1989) and Be Your Dog’s Best Friend (1992) by John Rogerson. He illustrated over 80 books in the Bangers and Mash series of books by Paul Groves, which aired as a television series on Children’s IT in 1989, and was a regular
contributor to the ‘For Dummies’ series of instructional books. His work also drew the attention of many companies and advertisers, and over the years he produced advertisements, posters and calendars for brands and companies such as Dunlop, Renault, Alka Selzer, Dewar’s Whisky and Walkers Crisps. Most recently, his adverts for Timothy Taylor’s Brewery have adorned many London nderground stations.
Though the endless stream of commissions he received throughout his life should be enough to demonstrate his enduring popularity, he also received a string of accolades and awards across his career. He was named The Cartoonist’s Club of Great Britain’s Illustrative Cartoonist of the Year in 1980 and their Advertising Cartoonist of the Year in 1982. The Cartoon Art Trust named him Gag Cartoonist of the Year in 1982 and again in 1997, and presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from niversity of Leicester.
Despite being in and out of hospital during his nal years, McLachlan continued to submit cartoons to Private Eye and The Oldie up until the nal few days of his life, which speaks greatly to his relentless work ethic and his bubbling imagination and inventiveness. He died on 29 September 2024. He is survived by his wife Shirley, whom he had married in 1964, and his daughters, Danielle, Joelle and Aimee, and son Alex, and four grandchildren.
M C LACHLAN CLASSICS
297 SEAG LL ID PARADE
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 5/8/20
Ink with watercolour 8 16 ¼ INCHES
Redraw of a cartoon that appeared in Private Eye , 6 September 2019, issue 1504
Ed McLachlan
298
WE’RE TRYING TO IN OL E O R ETHNIC NEWCOMERS MORE INTO ILLAGE LIFE
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 17/4/19
Ink
11 14 ½ INCHES
Redraw of a cartoon that originally appeared in Private Eye, 25 July 2008, issue 1215
299
HE SAYS YO ’LL LIKE HIS FRIEND – HE SAYS HE’S A WELL KNOWN FILM ACTOR AND YO ’LL RECOGNISE HIM WHEN YO SEE HIM
Signed and inscribed with title
Ink and watercolour; 12 ¼ 11 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , April 2021, issue 398, page 65
300
NO DO BT ABO T IT, MR MERRIDEW, YO ’ E GOT IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 3/10/19
Ink with watercolour
8 13 ½ INCHES
Redraw of a cartoon that originally appeared in Private Eye
301
FOOLS!! – I ASKED FOR A H GE WOODEN HORSE FOR PLACING O TSIDE THE TROJAN CITY WALLS!
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 24/3/21
Ink and watercolour
10 ½ 15 ¾ INCHES
Redraw of a cartoon that originally appeared in Private Eye , 19 March 2021, issue 1543, page 24
302
THE ONE THING I HATE ABO T S MMER –GREAT BIG MOTHS COMING IN AT NIGHT
Signed, inscribed with title and dated 21/4/20
Ink and watercolour
10 ¼ 13 ¼ INCHES
Redraw of a cartoon that originally appeared in The Cartoonist
Ed McLachlan
M C LACHLAN RECENTLY MINTED
303
D E TO THE ARCTIC ICE BREAKING P, THE POLAR BEARS HAD TAKEN P PADDLEBOARDING ... AND WERE HEADING SO TH!
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with watercolour 12 17 ¼ INCHES Illustrated: Private Eye , 5 July 2024, page 42
304
DON’T YO J ST HATE IT WHEN THE ENGLISH ARE IN THE CIRC S WITH THE LIONS
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour
11 9 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , June 2024, issue 440, page 73
305
IT’S OK – THEY’E ARMY ANTS ON THE MARCH ALL RIGHT, B T THEY’RE BRITISH ARMY ANTS
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with watercolour
11 13 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , May 2024, issue 439, page 69
310 I THO GHT WE WERE GOING TO WATCH PORN TONIGHT
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with watercolour
9 ½ 12 INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , May 2024, issue 439, page 7
10. Ed McLachlan
311
THERE WAS SOME CONTRO ERSY AS TO WHO ACT ALLY WON THE 100 METRES FINAL
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour 12 ½ 13 INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , September 2024, issue 443, page 65
312
WAITING FOR THE PRINCE HAS GOT S CLAMPED AGAIN
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with watercolour 10 12 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , August 2024, issue 442, page 67
11. Co temporary Cartoo ists
CONTEMPORARY CARTOONISTS
MIKE WILLIAMS
Michael Charles Williams (born 1940)
Since his rst cartoon was published in Punch in 1967, Mike Williams has contributed regularly to many periodicals. His technically con dent watercolour images have an immediate charm, but can also be darkly humorous. He has a particular interest in comic representations of animal life, which he calls his ‘Animalia’, and of historical events.
For a biography of Mike Williams, please refer to The Illustrators, 1999, page 245.
313
OH SH T P!
Signed and inscribed with title
Ink and watercolour
7 ½ 11 INCHES
314 CHARLES DARWIN DISCO ERS THE ORIGIN OF THE FAECES
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour 13 ½ 10 ¼ INCHES
315 (above) ACTOR AND PROMPT
Signed Ink and watercolour
12 15 ½ INCHES
316 (below) WE CLOSE AT SI !
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour
11 ½ 14 INCHES
317 (above) WELL, MAJOR, ACCORDING TO MY MAN AL, IT READS F...O...R...E... WHATE ER THAT MIGHT MEAN.
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour 10 11 ¾ INCHES
318 (below) EARLY SLEDGING ‘ I ’ LL BET YO R MOTHER ’ S SISTER ’ S CO SIN IS NOT A PARTIC LARLY PLEASANT SORT OF A PERSON .’
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and watercolour 10 ¾ 13 ½ INCHES
11. Contemporary Cartoonists
PETER BROOKES
Peter Derek Brookes, CBE FRSA RDI (born 1943)
‘His target is rarely the ideology of one politician or another. It is the vanity, inanity and mediocrity of the whole damn lot.’
(Matthew Parris, The Times, 13 October 2009)
Peter Brookes maintains the most consistently high standard of any editorial cartoonist working in Britain today. His daily political cartoons and regular ‘Nature Notes’, produced for The Times, are always inventive, incisive and con dently drawn. They are the fruit of wide experience as a cartoonist and illustrator, and of complete independence from editorial intrusion. For a biography of Peter Brookes, please refer to The Illustrators, 2009, page 164.
319 (below) NAT RE NOTES
A RWANDAN BESTIARY
Signed and dated ‘20 i 24’
Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 20 January 2024
320 (above) MANIFESTOS ...
Signed and dated ‘13 vi 24’ Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 13 June 2024
321 (below) WELL, THAT’S WHAT A 174 MAJORITY GETS YO !
Signed and dated ‘17 vii 24’ Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 17 July 2024
322 (above)
J STICE FOR GRENFELL
Signed and dated ‘5 ix 24’ Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 5 September 2024
323 (below) IT’LL TAKE A WHILE, B T WE’LL GET YO BACK ON YO R FEET AGAIN!
Signed and dated ‘13 ix 24’ Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 13 September 2024
324 (above) PROGRESS ...
Signed and dated ‘19 ix 24’ Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 19 September 2024
325 (below) THE CATASTROPHIC THREAT
Signed and dated ‘11 x 24’ Ink and watercolour
8 11 INCHES
Illustrated: The Times , 11 October 2024
11. Contemporary Cartoonists
SIMON DREW
Simon Brooksby Drew (born 1952)
Simon Drew has combined his zoological training, his skill as a draughtsman, and his inventive approach to language and puns to create a unique and highly popular comic art.
For a biography of Simon Drew, please refer to The Illustrators, 2018, page 157.
Nos 326-329 are all designs for greetings cards
327 E C SE ME, IS THIS THE Q E E FOR SPEEDY BOARDING?
Signed Ink and coloured pencil
8 12 INCHES
326
101 D LL MARTIANS
Signed and inscribed with title Ink and coloured pencil
7 5 ¼ INCHES
KATHRYN LAMB
Kathryn Jane Lamb (born 1959)
Kathryn Lamb is one of the K’s leading female cartoonists. Her cartoons appear regularly in Private Eye, The Spectator, The Oldie, Church Times and numerous others.
For a biography of Kathryn Lamb, please refer to The Illustrators, 2023, page 224.
330 (above) ‘BEA CO P’ ‘THANK YO . THAT MEANS A LOT’
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
1 ¾ 2 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Private Eye , August 2024
331 (below) I’M J ST HERE TO MAKE P THE N MBERS
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
2 ¼ 3 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Private Eye , August 2024
332 (above) APPARENTLY THE FAT LADY SANG HER HEART O T ON J LY 4TH
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
3 3 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Spectator , July 2024
333 (below) DID WE REMEMBER TO CANCEL THE PAPERS? AND THE BOOKS? AND THE A THORS WHO WROTE THE BOOKS?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
2 ¾ 4 ½ INCHES
Illustrated: Private Eye , August 2024
336 (below left) LIBERTY THE CHILDLESS CAT LADY
Signed Ink
3 x 2 inches
Illustrated: Spectator , August 2024
334 (left) IT’S A LO ELY DAY – WHY NOT TE T O TSIDE?
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
3 ½ 3 ¼ INCHES
Illustrated: Spectator , July 2024
337 (below centre) ETON OTING SONG
Signed and inscribed with title Ink with coloured pencil
2 ¾ 2 ¾ INCHES
Illustrated: Private Eye , July 2024
335 (above) PLAYSTATION, W II , BO , GAMES, D DS, SPEAKERS, LAPTOP, iPOD, iPAD, iPHONE – I’M S RE WE’ E FORGOTTEN SOMETHING
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
3 ½ 4 INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , August 2024
338 (below right) A LOT OF O R P PILS GO INTO THE CITY
Signed and inscribed with title Ink
3 ¼ 3 INCHES
Illustrated: The Oldie , June 2024
MATT
Matthew Pritchett, MBE (born 1964), known as ‘Matt’
‘His genius lies in being witty without being nasty’ (Charles Moore, quoted in Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph, 17 October 2008)
Matt’s much-loved pocket cartoons provide a consistently original take on the big news stories of the day.
For a biography of Matt, please refer to The Illustrators, 2009, page 185.
Nos 339-348 are all signed, inscribed with title, executed in ink and are illustrated in the Daily Telegraph
339
IMMIGRANTS LIKE NIGEL FARAGE COME O ER HERE AND EAT ALL O R TESTICLES
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Wednesday 15 November 2023
341
O R INMATES WILL SOON BE FREE RANGE!
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Sunday 8 September 2024
340 HOW’S B SINESS?
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Thursday 28 March 2024
342
ON TH RSDAY THE GO ERNMENT SAID THE NHS WAS IN A CRITICAL CONDITION. NOW THEY SAY THEY’ E LOST O R NOTES
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Sunday 15 September 2024
Matt Pritchett, The Best of Matt 2024, London: Seven Dials, 2024
343 DO YO STILL WEAR THIS S IT?
I’M SENDING A BAG OF CLOTHES TO 10 DOWNING STREET
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Tuesday 17 September 2024
346 WHALE WATCHING
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Saturday 28 September 2024
344 THE PM WANTS TO WATCH A FILM. CAN HE SE YO R NETFLI ACCO NT?
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Friday 20 September 2024
347
I’M NOT WEARING A S IT IN CASE PEOPLE THINK A MILLIONAIRE PAID FOR IT
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Sunday 29 September 2024
345 BOOING THE WINTER F EL OTE DELAY REALLY WARMED ME P. I M ST REMEMBER THAT WHEN WE CAN’T HEAT THE HO SE
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Tuesday 24 September 2024
348 NE T IS A HEART-WRENCHING SONG ABO T A PRIME MINISTER WHO IS FORCED TO PAY FOR HIS OWN TAYLOR SWIFT TICKETS
4 3 INCHES
Illustrated: Friday 4 October 2024
JONATHAN CUSICK
Jonathan Kristofor Cusick (born 1978)
Over the last decade, Jonathan Cusick has gained a strong reputation for his work as an illustrator, and particularly his arresting caricatures, which seem to hold a comically distorting mirror up to personalities who are prominent in the contemporary worlds of politics and entertainment.
For a biography of Jonathan Cusick, please refer to The Illustrators, 2010, page 275.
Signed Acrylic on canvas paper
9 ½ 16 ¾ INCHES
‘... Saluting the 60th anniversary of the lm’s release this September.’
Jonathan Cusick, September 2024
BOND AND GOLDFINGER PLAY
A RO ND OF GOLF
351 RONNIE CORBETT Signed Acrylic on canvas paper
13 ¼ 11 ½ INCHES
352
FRANKIE HOWERD IN
‘ P POMPEII’
Signed
Acrylic on canvas paper
11 9 INCHES
ADAM WEST AND B RT WARD AS BATMAN AND ROBIN
Signed
Acrylic on canvas paper
12 ½ 16 ½ INCHES
354
JOHN F KENNEDY
Signed
Acrylic on canvas paper
12 ¼ 9 ¾ INCHES
355
THE BIG BANG
Signed
Acrylic on canvas paper
8 ¼ 9 INCHES
11. Contemporary Cartoonists
KING CHARLES III
Acrylic on canvas paper
10 ½ 14 INCHES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Backemeyer 2005
Sylvia Backemeyer (ed), Picture This: The Artist as Illustrator, London: Herbert Press, 2005
Baker 2002
Martin Baker, Artists of Radio Times A Golden Age of British Illustration, Oxford: The Ashmolean Press & Chris Beetles Ltd, 2002
Bryant 2000
Mark Bryant, Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists, London: Ashgate, 2000
Bryant and Heneage 1994
Mark Bryant and Simon Heneage, Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists 1730-1980, Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994
Clark 1998
Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writer and Editors, London: The British Library, 1998
Driver 1981
David Driver (compiler), The Art of Radio Times. The First Sixty Years, London: BBC, 1981
Feaver 1981
William Feaver, Masters of Caricature. From Hogarth and Gillray to Scarfe and Levine, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981
Horne 1994
Alan Horne, The Dictionary of 20th Century Book Illustrators, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1994
Houfe 1996
Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1996 (revised edition)
Johnson and Gruetzner
Jane Johnson and Anna Gruetzner, The Dictionary of British Artists, 1880-1940, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1986 (reprint)
Khoury 2004
George Khoury (ed), True Brit. A Celebration of the Great Comic Book Artists of the UK, Raleigh, NC: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2004
Lewis 1967
John Lewis, The 20th Century Book, London: Herbert Press, 1967
Mallalieu 1976
Huon Mallalieu, The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1976
Martin 1989
Douglas Martin, The Telling Line. Essays on fifteen contemporary book illustrators, London: Julia MacRae Books, 1989
Matthew and Harrison 2004
H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford niversity Press, 2004 (61 vols)
Peppin and Mickelthwait 1983
Brigid Peppin and Lucy Mickelthwait, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators: The Twentieth Century, London: John Murray, 1983
Price 1957
R G G Price, A History of Punch, London: Collins, 1957
Ray 1976
Gordon Norton Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914, New York: Pierpoint Morgan Library, 1976
Reid 1928
Forrest Reid, Illustrators of the Sixties, London: Faber & Gwyer, 1928
Souter 2007
Nick and Tessa Souter, The Illustration Handbook. A Guide to the World’s Greatest Illustrators, Royston: Eagle Editions, 2007
Spalding 1990
Frances Spalding, 20th Century Painters and Sculptors, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990
Spielmann 1895
M H Spielmann, The History of ‘Punch’, London: Cassell and Company, 1895
Suriano 2000
Gregory R Suriano, The Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators, New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press/London: The British Library, 2000
Turner 1996
Jane Turner (ed), The Dictionary of Art, London: Macmillan, 1996 (34 vols)
Wood 1995
Christopher Wood, The Dictionary of Victorian Painting, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1995 (2 vols)
C M LATI E INDE OF CATALOG ES (1991-2024)
Dates in bold indicate entire chapters devoted to single illustrators
A Abbey, Edwin Austin: 1997
Akroyd, Carry: 2024
Adams, Christian: 2011
Adams, Frank: 2007
Addams, Charles: 1991, 2015
Ahlberg, Janet: 1992
Aldin, Cecil: 1991, 1992, 1997, 1999
Aldridge, Alan: 2011
Alex (Charles Peattie & Russell Taylor): 2022, 2023
