ILLUSTRATOR

Album of 95 original detailed illustrations (drawings) of antique wrought iron door knockers (70 from Switzerland and 25 from Italy and France) by the English artist Arthur Elliot, titled by him 'A Book of Knockers'. With short essay by Elliot.

Author: 
Arthur Elliot, English illustrator [Swiss door knockers; doorknobs; Switzerland; architectural hardware]
Publication details: 
The majority of the illustrations dated, and all those to 1907. Mainly taken at Berne and other Swiss cities.
£450.00

Elliot's illustrations, attractively executed in great detail, recall the style of those in the volumes produced by the publisher B. T. Batsford during the same period. All in excellent condition, the majority with tissue guards; album in good good condition. Fifty-eight of the illustrations, all of Swiss knockers, on paper ranging in size from 21 x 5 cm to 23.5 x 16 cm (the latter the majority), are laid down on the rectos of the first 45 leaves of a 47-leaf landscape folio album (leaf dimensions 36 x 16 cm). All have tissue guards.

[ Nicolas Bentley; drawings; Manuscript] Sketchbook

Author: 
Nicolas Bentley
Publication details: 
No date.
£550.00

Cartoonist and illustrator. In black solander box. Folio, boards nearly detached, 84 pages of drawings, including nudes, male torsos, heads, some comic. "No.4" written on first page. (Item purchased some years ago from the booksellers who bought Bentley's library - Waterfields).) An early sketchbook from the artist who illustrated T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"

[ Edward Lear, artist and writer of nonsense verse. ] Autograph Signature ('Edwd Lear.').

Author: 
Edward Lear (1812-1888), artist and author, famed for his nonsense verse
Lear
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£80.00
Lear

On 2 x 6cm strip of paper, cut from a letter. In good condition, lightly aged. A good firm signature, underlined, with the tiniest part of the head of the loop of the iniitial 'E' of 'Edwd' has been shaved off.

[ Connie Christie, writer and illustrator. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Connie Christie') to 'Mr. Adams' [ Royal children's photographer Marcus Adams ]

Author: 
Connie Christie [ Constance Mary Charlotte Christie ] (1908-1989), Australian children's writer and illustrator [ Marcus Adams (1875-1959)), children's photographer patronised by British royalty ]
Publication details: 
9 Millah Road, Balwyn, Victoria, Australia, on her illustrated letterhead. Undated.
£56.00

1p., landscape 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. Letterhead in brown and black, with childlike self-portrait with dripping pallette. She is enclosing 'a few of my small picture books', thinking that they 'would be entertaining in a waiting room' Adams was Britain's foremost children's photographer, patronised by the Royal Family, and was famed for his Dover Street studio disguised as a children's playroom, complete with toys. From the Adams family archive.

[ William Hamilton Gibson, American illustrator and naturalist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W Hamilton Gibson') to 'Mr Skinner', thanking him for a notice of a lecture

Author: 
William Hamilton Gibson (1850-1896), American illustrator and naturalist
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 132 Lincoln Place, Brooklyn. 6 March 1894.
£56.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He thanks him for a notice of his lecture which is 'sympathetic and in every way adequate and helpful'. He is accustomed to reviews 'which however kindly and appreciative have nevertheless so woefully manipulated my facts'. He gives as an example his 'good friend Baker of the Union', who 'in the kindliest & most cordial spirit put words in my mouth, statements of scientific fact [...] But it is as you have so often told me. The only way to establish a truth is to pound away at it, iteration and reiteration.'

[ Printed item, with sixteen illustrations of 'Gibson Heads'. ] Proofs of Drawings by Charles Dana Gibson. (Size 15 to 20 Inches.) Hand printed on Japanese tissue paper, mounted on boards ready for framing.

Author: 
[ Charles Dana Gibson, American illustrator, known for his illustrations of 'Gibson Girls' ] James Henderson & Sons, Victorian publishers
Publication details: 
James Henderson & Sons, Red Lion House, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, E.C. Undated [ Edwardian ].
£56.00

4pp., 8vo. Bifolium on shiny paper. In good condition, lightly-aged. The front cover carries a reproduction of the print 'Wireless Telegraphy.' Pp.3-4 carry reproductions of the 'Gibson Heads': 'NOW READY. - A Series of Sixteen Gibson Heads, of which the accompanying illustrations are miniatures. | Each subject is Hand-Printed on Japanese Hand-Made Tissue Paper, mounted ready for framing. Price 5s. 6d. each, post free.' Scarce: no copies on WorldCat, or on COPAC.

[ Conrad Heighton Leigh, English artist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('C H Leigh') to 'Mr Horton', giving an account of the result of his visit to the London publisher Grant Richards, regarding 'Mr Hegcock's & my little alphabet'.

Author: 
Conrad Heighton Leigh (b.1883), artist, commercial illustrator and member of the Brighton Arts Club [ Grant Richards (1911-1963), London publisher ]
Publication details: 
68 Grand Parade, Brighton. 20 January 1902.
£56.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, with light signs of age and wear. After following Horton's 'kind advice' concerning 'Mr Hedgcock's & my little alphabet', 're some sketches with more action in them', he has been to 'Town' to show the designs to the publishers Grant Richards. He 'called in person on Thursday but after some delay they have eventually rejected the Alphabet. [...] Evidently from what I was told the sketches such as you advised would have been more what they wanted', so he will do them again 'in that style and try again with other people'.

[ George Cruikshank, artist and illustrator. ] Contemporary manuscript catalogue of 264 books with illustrations by Cruikshank, and newspaper cuttinng of long obituary ('Death of George Cruikshank') from the Daily News, and two other cuttings.

Author: 
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), English artist and illustrator [ Charles Dickens ]
Publication details: 
The catalogue without place or date. [London, 1860s?]
£350.00

12pp., 4to. On the twelve leaves of a ruled notebook, stitched into buff wraps. Internally in good condition, in heavily-worn wraps, with 'G Cruikshank' in the same hand on the front cover. The entries are arranged in eight sections: 1811-1821 (61 items); 'No Date' (36 items); 1826-1830 (23 items); 1831-1840 (51 items); 1841-1850 (45 items); 1851-1861 (33 items); 1862-[1867] (7 items); and a final section of eight items from between 1811 and 1824. The penultimate section is headed '1862 to [blank]', indicating that the catalogue was a work in progress, and the latest items are dated 1867.

[Henry Courtney Selous, nineteenth-century historical artist.] Autograph Signature ('H. C. Selous') on part of letter addressed to J. Watkins of Liverpool.

Author: 
Henry Courtney Selous [formerly Slous] (1803-1890), historical artist, illustrator and lithographer
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£23.00

On 7 x 10.5 rectangle cut from the conclusion of a letter. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of mount adhering to reverse at corners. Reads: '<...> appear amongst your <...> valuable collection. | I remain Dr Sir | Yours most truly | H. C. Selous | J. Watkins Esqre | Liverpool.'

[Oscar Eckhard, popular illustrator and artist.] Autograph Note Signed regarding 'Cowes drawing'.

Author: 
Oscar Eckhard (b.1862), popular illustrator and artist, contemporary of the poet Rupert Brooke at Rugby School, and lover of the classicist G. Lowes Dickinson
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 64 Glebe Place, Chelsea, SW [London]. No date, but dated on reverse in another hand July 1897, with stamp of the St James's Budget, 15 Dorset Street, Westminster.
£60.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'Dear Sir/ | I beg to enclose my account for Cowes drawing. | Yrs truly | Oscar Eckhard'. On the reverse, in another hand: 'Oscar Eckhardt. [sic] | Popular Illustrator & artist. | (July 1897)', with stamp of the St James's Budget.

[John Henry Batchelor, illustrator.] Autograph Letter Signed ('John H. Batchelor') to an unnamed recipient, discussing his work and terms.

Author: 
John Henry Batchelor (born 1936), MBE, English artist and 'arguably the world's foremost technical illustrator' and 'the world's premier stamp illustrator'
Publication details: 
15 St Johns Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth.
£56.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with water staining to a couple of words. Written in a stylish, calligraphic hand. He begins by thanking the recipient for a letter and postal order, before continuing: 'In case you are interested, I also do paintings of antique weapons. An example of my work can be seen in the August 1962 issue of "Guns Review".' He explains that such illustrations can be in either black and white or full colour, and concludes: 'If you have a particular favourite I shall be pleased to quote.'

[Printed 'Agenda Buvard de la Maison des Magasins Réunis' (Parisian department store), filled with photographs, advertisements and illustrations, including twelve stylish full-page colour representations of the seasons by 'Fabiano'.]

Author: 
[Maison des Magasins Réunis, Parisian department store, founded in 1866; 'Fabien Fabiano' [pen name of Jules Coup de Fréjac (1883-1962)]
Publication details: 
Maison des Magasins Réunis, Place de la République, Faubourg du Temple, Rue de Malte, Paris, France. [Paris. Imp. Henon, 11, rue Stendal. 10-12.] 1913.
£450.00

4to. In red cloth binding, gilt, with the department store's logo on the front board and endpapers. In very good condition, on aged paper, with empty wallet on rear pastedown. Green cloth bookmark with printed advertisement 'pour la Toilette des Dames'. An attractively-designed volume, with a marked Art Nouveau feel, the highlight of which is the set of twelve full-page illustrations of the seasons on art paper by Fabiano.

[E. J. Sullivan, English book illustrator.] Page of pencil sketches of girls dancing, captioned 'The poppy', 'Sheperdess' and 'Mamma's [sic] little Alabama Coon'.

Author: 
E. J. Sullivan [Edmund Joseph Sullivan] (1869-1933), English book illustrator
Publication details: 
Without place or date. [Circa 1894?]
£160.00

1p., 4to (22.5 x 18cm). On laid paper. In fair condition, aged and with slight chipping. The sketches are crude but attractive, headed with a line of three girls in black stockings and petticoats shaking a leg, with the phrase 'The poppy' in the top left-hand corner, and a line of girls at the foot, with an oriental male figure with cane in the background, captioned 'Mamma's Alabama Coon'. Two sketches of the 'Shepherdess' at bottom right, with usual broad-brimmed hat and crook. Hattie Starr's 'Little Alabama Coon' took London by storm in 1894.

[Three coloured plates, tipped in onto three leaves in an illustrated portfolio.] The Bookman Portfolio. Containing Plates in Colour by Jessie Willcox Smith. Illustrating The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley.

Author: 
Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935), American children's illustrator [Hodder & Stoughton Limited, London publishers; Charles Kingsley]
Publication details: 
Hodder & Stoughton Limited, Warwick Square, London, E.C.4. Christmas 1920.
£120.00

Each of the three coloured plates is 19 x 14 cm, and each is laid down on a piece of 31.5 x 20.5 cm cream textured paper, each mount with caption and vignette printed in green. The three are placed in a portfolio, made of the same textured paper as the mount, with the front carrying the title, publishers' details, and an illustration (of underwater baby balancing on a fish). In fair condition, aged and with wear to extremities.

Autographh Letter Signed from the illustrator Will Owen, thanking T. Hellier Denselow for saying 'nice things' about his work, which he himself likes 'occasionally - not often'.

Author: 
Will Owen (1869-1957), English book illustrator and poster artist [T. Hellier Denselow]
Publication details: 
4 Richmond Avenue, Richmond, Surrey. 7 July 1901.
£38.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter is addressed to 'T. Hellier Denselow Esq.', but the accompanying envelope (with stamp and postmark) is addressed by him to 'D. [sic] Hellier Denselow Esqre | 137 Hurlingham Road | London S.W.' Owen thanks Denselow 'for all the nice things in your letter', adding that he is 'glad you like the sketches. I do myself occasionally - not often.' Denselow would himself appear to have been a commercial artist, with a studio in Gunnersbury Lane in west London.

Autograph Signature of the artist, children's book illustrator and poster designer John Hassall.

Author: 
John Hassall (1868-1948), English painter, children's book illustrator and poster designer
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£25.00

On one side of a 5.5 x 20 cm strip of laid paper, cut away from the bottom of a letter. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with traces of mount adhering to the reverse. Reads, in a firm attractive hand: 'Yours very sincerely | John Hassall.'

Autograph Signature ('Bernard Partridge') of the 'Punch' cartoonist Sir John Bernard Partridge.

Author: 
Bernard Partridge [Sir John Bernard Partridge] (1861-1945), cartoonist and illustrator, best-known for his work with 'Punch'
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£20.00

On one side of a 4.5 x 13 cm strip of paper, cut from the bottom of a letter. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All in Partridge's hand. Reads: '[...]ment of time occupied. | With many regrets, | I am truly yours, | Bernard Partridge.'

Three Autograph Notes Signed "Michael or "Michael Ayrton" to "Tom" [Driberg], politician and gay icon, and Mrs Driberg, Tom's wife, about payment for a portrait of Constant Lambert, conductor and composer.

Author: 
Michael Ayrton, artist and book illustrator
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] Bradfields, Toppesfield, Nr Halstead, Essex, 28 May 1954, 7 June 1954, and 6 Feb. 1955.
£180.00

Total 3pp., 12mo, fold marks, pinholes in two,good condition. The letters illustrate how difficult it was to get money out of Driberg. [28 May] Ayrton is about to go to America and must "gather all available resources to keep things going here [...] Could I therefore have some of the money owing for the portrait of Constant? All of it would be splendid but even some would help." [7 June] He thanks Mrs Driberg for payment of half. [6 Feb.] "Forgive my bothering you but I am a bit pressed for money at the moment and you still owe me half the price of the Lambert portrait whihc is Twenty Pounds.

Christmas illustration by Quentin Blake, for his own personal use, with an autograph inscription signed by him ('Q').

Author: 
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator [Montague Shaw, Faber and Penguin]
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator
Publication details: 
Undated [1970s?]; sent from his address 23 Gledhow Gardens, London SW5.
£250.00
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator

Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. 4to (34 x 29.5 cm). Good, with a little light creasing. Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. Depicts anthropomorphic bear, pig, chicken, squirrel and hedgehog in a line from largest to smallest, all with party hats, smiles on their faces and forepaws and other front limbs aloft. Blake's address, as part of printed piece, written upwards along left-hand margin.

Christmas illustration by Quentin Blake, for his own personal use, with an autograph inscription signed by him ('Q').

Author: 
Quentin Blake (born 1932), English children's book illustrator [Montague Shaw, Faber and Penguin]
Publication details: 
Undated [1970s?]; sent from his address 23 Gledhow Gardens, London SW5.
£250.00

Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. 4to (34 x 29.5 cm). Good, with a little light creasing. Reproduction of black and white drawing in Blake's inimitable style. Depicts anthropomorphic bear, pig, chicken, squirrel and hedgehog in a line from largest to smallest, all with party hats, smiles on their faces and forepaws and other front limbs aloft. Blake's address, as part of printed piece, written upwards along left-hand margin. Genuine autograph inscription by Blake, in blue ink, at right of drawing, reading 'With best wishes for Christmas & love from Q'.

[Pamphlet printed at Canterbury College of Art.] The Garden of Pleasure. Translated from "La Maison Rustique" by Charles Estienne, 1572. With linocuts by Jessie Kennett.

Author: 
Charles Estienne [Jessie Kennett, illustrator; Canterbury College of Art]
Charles Estienne [Jessie Kennett, illustrator; Canterbury College of Art]
Publication details: 
Canterbury College of Art, 1949.
£75.00
Charles Estienne [Jessie Kennett, illustrator; Canterbury College of Art]

Small 4to, 4 pp. Stitched. In original brown and black decorative wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper. A pretty piece of printing, with the title-page printed in light blue and black, and the vignette on illustration on the reverse of the title leaf in the same light blue. The text covers two pages. Scarce: no copy on COPAC.

Signature (and subscription) only from letter, signed Lancelot Speed, book illustrator.

Author: 
Lancelot Speed (1860 – 1931), Victorian illustrator of books, usually of a fantastical or romantic nature
Lancelot Speed
Publication details: 
No place or date surviving.
£23.00
Lancelot Speed

Part of letter, 11 x 5cm, good condition, saying, yours try | Lancelot Speed.

Album of 95 original detailed illustrations (drawings) of antique wrought iron door knockers (70 from Switzerland and 25 from Italy and France) by the English artist Arthur Elliot, titled by him 'A Book of Knockers'. With short essay by Elliot.

Author: 
Arthur Elliot, English illustrator [Swiss door knockers; Switzerland; architectural hardware]
antique wrought iron door knockers
Publication details: 
The majority of the illustrations dated, and all those to 1907. Mainly taken at Berne and other Swiss cities.
£650.00
antique wrought iron door knockers

Elliot's illustrations, attractively executed in great detail, recall the style of those in the volumes produced by the publisher B. T. Batsford during the same period. All in excellent condition, the majority with tissue guards; album in good good condition. Fifty-eight of the illustrations, all of Swiss knockers, on paper ranging in size from 21 x 5 cm to 23.5 x 16 cm (the latter the majority), are laid down on the rectos of the first 45 leaves of a 47-leaf landscape folio album (leaf dimensions 36 x 16 cm). All have tissue guards.

Typed Letter Signed by Nicolas Bentley to the actor C. Kenneth Benda, concerning the rights to his book 'Trent's Last Case', and a proposal by Benda for a stage adaptation.

Author: 
Nicolas Bentley [Nicolas Clerihew Bentley (1907-1978)], British author and illustrator [C. Kenneth Benda (1902-1978), British actor]
Typed Letter Signed by Nicolas Bentley
Publication details: 
10 June 1966; on Bentley's letterhead, 7 Hobury Street, Chelsea.
£75.00
Typed Letter Signed by Nicolas Bentley

4to, 1 p. 19 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly creased paper, with strip of sunning to left-hand margin. Neat signature: 'Nicolas Bentley'. The film and television rights to the book were all 'bought some years ago by Herbert Wilcox, who, as I understand it, still owns them'. Bentley has reports the opinion of 'Messrs A. P. Watt, my late father's agent', on the question of the radio rights. 'I control the stage rights', Bentley states, giving the conditions on which he would agree to a stage adaptation.

Two Autograph Letters Signed "H. Thomson" and "Hugh Thomson" to [J.C.] Dollman, artist, discussing golf and illustrating his humour, physical failings and research.

Author: 
Hugh Thomson, artist-illustrator
Publication details: 
5 Playfair Mansions, West Kensington, 23 March n.y. and 27 Perhap Road, West Kensington, 12 Feb. 1906.
£350.00

Total 5pp., 8vo, one sl.marked but mainly good condition. [March 23] He commiserates on "domestic troubles" and says what a disaster it would have been if the completion of a picture had been delayed. "You will be sorry to hear that I am confiend to the house with varicose veins in the leg. The trouble has arisen through bicycling, a maniac of the wheel having induced me to scorch over half a county with him. I am consequently obliged to give up the treat I promised myself in seeing your pivture at your studio but I mean to ahe- honour the Academy with a visit . . .

Autograph Note Signed to [J.C.] Dollman, artist [Artist's General Benevolent Fund etc]

Author: 
Byam Shaw, artist and illustrator
Publication details: 
62 Addison Road, Kensington, W [London], 1 May 1907
£56.00

Two pages (but large handwriting), 8vo, conjoined leaves, good condition. "I write to thank you most sincerely, for your kind letter about my picture. I think it was very kind indeed to trouble to write. I appreciate it very much."

Original illustration, produced for publication, signed 'A. Twidle' and entitled on reverse 'Monkish Robes', showing three monks in the grounds of an oriental (Burmese?) temple.

Author: 
Arthur Twidle (1865-1936), English book illustrator [Burma; Burmese; oriental; the Far East]
Publication details: 
Undated.
£180.00

On a piece of thin card, 30.5 x 23 cm. Dimensions of illustration 23 x 17 cm. Signed by Twidle in bottom right-hand corner. The image itself is clear and sharp, in spotted and grubby margins. Docketed in pencil on reverse 'Monkish Robes | 491 | to 5 inches width | with rule as in picture'. An attractive, detailed watercolour, in black and grey, and picked out in white, showing three monks processing with eyes cast to the ground in different directions in the grounds of stone temple overgrown with foliage.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bernard Partridge.') to 'Miss Smith'.

Author: 
Bernard Partridge [Sir John Bernard Partridge] (1861-1945), English cartoonist and illustrator, best-known for his work for 'Punch'
Publication details: 
24 January 1897 ('M.dccc.xc.vij: | jan: xxiv.'); on letterhead of 11 Marlborough Road, St John's Wood, [London] N.W.
£56.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Attractive red letterhead, in the Arts and Crafts style. The writings she referred to in a previous letter have not come. 'You probably forgot to enclose them. I expect to read some of the papers in the days when I look in the P[all]. M[all]. G[azette].' He asks her to give him 'an idea of what the publisher proposes to spend on the illustrations, and also the size of them, and the style - pen & ink, or "wash".' He has heard news of her 'from Welsh, Ethel Johnson's husband, who is with me at the Haymarket'.

The Months, Reprinted from "Little Folks"

Author: 
Walter Crane, designer, and Beatrice Crane, writer of verse
Publication details: 
No place of publication or date
£850.00

Not paginated but twelve pages (Months!), 4to, with detached original front wrap, chipped and marked, missing back wrap, contents good, in unrelated folder. INSCRIBED top right of front wrap by Beatrice Crane, Walter's wife, and collaborator on this work (the verse): "Marguerite Marigold / from / Beatrice Crane/". Not listed in Masse.

The Betting-Book. By George Cruikshank. With Cuts.

Author: 
George Cruikshank [Victorian London; gambling; betting]
Publication details: 
London: W. & F. G. Cash, 5, Bishopsgate Street Without; [successors to Charles Gilpin.] And sold by W. Tweedie, 337, Strand; George Gallie, Glasgow; and all booksellers. 1852.
£350.00

8vo: 32 pp. Stitched. In original grey wraps. Text, four illustrations and map clear and entire. Printed on discoloured high-acidity paper. Lightly creased with a little wear to corners. Scarce. An attack on 'the Betting-offices that are springing up all over the town', with particular reference to those in the St Martin's Lane area. COPAC only lists four copies: at the British Library, Bodleian, Cambridge and Edinburgh; with two copies of the second edition: British Library and V & A National Art Library.

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