Ship-shaped Blue Peter logo born in works of Hart
Personal sketches show much-loved TV artist and presenter based the iconic emblem on 1952 drawing
HE enjoyed a long career popularising art f or young audiences and his famous creations included the logo for Blue Peter.
Now personal drawings by Tony Hart reveal he based the emblem for the children’s television staple on a sketch of a Humpty-dumpty pirate ship.
Personal watercolours and sketches by the presenter, who died in 2009, are being auctioned off by family friends, and the collection includes pieces from his first TV appearance.
These early illustrations appear to reveal the origins of the Blue Peter insignia used from the programme’s inception in 1958, and later stamped on badges coveted by generations of children after their launch in 1963.
An ink drawing by Hart from 1952 shows a galleon under full sail t ransporting egg- l i ke pirate characters for an illustrated tale called Hooray for Humpty-dumpty.
The t wo- masted vessel is unmistakably the inspiration for the future Blue Peter heraldry used six years later, family friends of the late illustrator have said.
The collection up for auction for an expected £20,000 was gifted by Hart to his agent Roc Renals, whose son Nic has decided to sell the works.
“The stuff he did in the Fifties and Sixties was exceptional,” he said. “The characters and caricatures he created were full of charm. He really captured their personalities very nicely.”
Hart’s earliest TV artwork, created on commission for the 1952 BBC programme Saturday Special, included a set of drawings depicting a pirate ship manned by egg-shaped crew members. One image shows the figures loading a cannon, another depicts them hauling a comrade aboard a ship, and another shows the stylised vessel in profile.
It is claimed this ship with streaming pennants, although with fewer sails than the final design, is the first appearance of the symbol that would be worn by Blue Peter guests and competition winners for decades.
Nic Renals said: “He drew those in 1952 and you only have to look at them to see how he worked up the design in the late 1950s for Blue Peter.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where it came from.”
Photocopies of Hart’s later designs for the Blue Peter emblem reveal his meticulous work, which took into account the scale of the small pin.
The badges, which are compulsory for presenters, have been updated since 1963 to include different colours based on the reason for their being awarded, and they still grant free access to numerous attractions across the UK.
Hart served as an officer with the Gurkha Rifles before beginning his work in children’s television in the Fifties. His career encompassed shows including Take Hart, Hartbeat, and the claymation comedy show Morph.
Among the pieces being auctioned off are more mature works, with watercolours of the Monserrat studio of The Beatles’ producer George Martin, landscapes of the Italian riviera, and numerous self-portrait caricatures.
The collection also includes a map drawn by Hart of his home village of Shamley Green in Surrey that shows his aesthetic distaste for additions to the l ocal l andscape, with one annotated as “Hideous new Seeboard regulator”.
Mr Renals believes the personal collection shows how versatile the children’s presenter was as an artist.
He said: “He lived and breathed art. I don’t think he had any other interests. He was totally committed.
“He seemed flamboyant but was really very focused on the art itself. He would go anywhere in the art world to create something different.
“He was always trying to inspire kids to get involved with art. He understood that you have to build their appreciation by entertaining them and showing them what they can do for themselves.”
The collection will come to auction at Ewbank’s in Surrey on Jan 29.
SIR – How excited I was to read your article (“The forgotten hero of Sutton Hoo”, January 1) on the imminent release of the film The Dig, which details the amazing archaeological finds at the Suffolk site.
The article tells of Basil Brown, the local historian and excavator who found the buried ship and the Anglo-saxon treasures, but was swept aside when historians realised the significance of his find.
However, when I am teaching my Year 4 pupils all about Sutton
Hoo as part of their history lessons, Basil Brown is most certainly not forgotten. He is frequently mentioned in the lessons as the man who discovered the Sutton Hoo treasures.
The importance of Basil Brown was made even more clear to us a couple of years ago when one of my pupils said her grandfather had known him as a child growing up in Suffolk. In our lessons, he is most certainly the hero of the hour.
Jane Sladdin
London SE25