Rare sale of original Ardizzone artwork
Bookshops and auctions have always proved good hunting grounds for original artwork by artists and illustrators. A good example is Bonhams’ book sale in Knightsbridge
tomorrow, where there are two complete sets of original artwork for books by the much-loved Edward Ardizzone (1900-1979).
Ardizzone, who was also an official war artist during the Second World War, was most successful with his children’s adventure stories featuring a small boy, Tim, and his adventures at sea. As a child, Ardizzone had spent much time in Ipswich docks, which proved a good setting for the stories he told his five-year-old son, Philip.
The first, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, was published in 1936; the
second, Tim and Lucy Go to Sea, in 1938; but it was not until 1949 that the third, Tim to the Rescue, was produced – the artwork for which Bonhams is selling for £30,000-£50,000.
Included are 23 watercolours and 24 black-and-white drawings with Ardizzone’s inimitable cross hatching.
Also at Bonhams is the complete original artwork for Ardizzone’s book Diana and Her Rhinoceros, written in 1964 for a granddaughter and often cited as a precursor of
Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea (1968). In the Ardizzone story, the young heroine is oblivious to the terror of grown-ups and treats a hefty rhino, who has wandered into their living room, as a pet. The artwork includes 14 watercolours and 16 penand-ink drawings (estimate £10,000-£20,000).
While individual works by Ardizzone, a prolific artist who found it difficult to stop drawing, are plentiful on the market, these compilations are rare.
Their particular interest is not simply an insight into how Ardizzone compiled and designed each page, but how he worked with his printers. For Tim to the
Rescue, for instance, we can see Ardizzone’s original black-and-white drawings
on transparent film, which the printers would lay over a coloured background.
Ardizzone was also meticulous about the return of artwork from his publishers, and these examples have been passed down through his three children, all now deceased, to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, one or more of whom are now the sellers. Let’s hope the buyers will keep the works together and perhaps loan them to a museum, rather than split them up and sell the parts, as some dealers are wont to do.
Let’s hope the buyers will keep the works together rather than split them up and sell the parts