Talented illustrator ‘unmasked’
An amazing coincidence led to the discovery of the name behind a set of drawings, as Roger Malone reports
FIVE years ago Cornish auctioneer Hilary Mackay attended a ‘popup’ sale intending to buy some furniture. But what caught her attention was a plastic bag with a few prints protruding from it.
On taking a closer look, what she found resulted in a mystery that has only recently been resolved.
“Under the prints was a pile of sheets of card – and, in between, was what I first thought to be a series of mounted etchings,” recalls Hilary.
“I adored the first one that I looked at, which was of the fair arriving in town with children running along behind.”
The images depicted childhood in the 1930s, but rather than attract too much attention to the lot, Hilary resisted rummaging any further. Instead, she decided to take a chance on what the rest were – and be prepared to bid up to one hundred pounds.
“Luckily the hammer fell to me at twenty two pounds plus commission – at which point I picked up the lot and clung to it until I had paid and loaded up my winnings,” she says.
Once home she was able to fully appreciate just what a wonderful collection of bygone illustrations this was.
She noticed that some were doublesided. On closer inspection, in good light, it became apparent that these were original pencil sketches, with some of the reverse sketches having been cut through.
“At this point I realised that these were from a sketch book that someone had dismantled, cut up and part mounted,” says Hilary.
But the question was: who was the artist? The style of the drawings indicated that it had to be a book illustrator as the quality was superb.
“For five years I deliberated whether to double-sided frame them, or keep them in a folder, whilst being frustratingly mystified as whose hand produced these gorgeous images.”
Despite being an auctioneer and house clearer with a lot of contacts in the art and antiques world no one was able to name the anonymous artist. However, the one thing they all agreed on was that the drawings were the work of a professional illustrator.
The mystery remained until recently when Hilary had a remarkable bit of luck. By pure chance, while completing a manor house clearance, a familiar face stared back at her from one of the
bookcases in a child’s bedroom. The dust cover of ‘People of Importance’ showed the face of a young girl – and there was no doubting the style of drawing.
“As I turned each page I saw more and more of the exact drawings that were in my little collection. I had at last found the illustrator I had so long admired, Mr James Henry Dowd,” she says.
Now the detective work could begin in earnest as, armed with a name, Hilary was able to research into the illustrator’s background.
Born in 1884, James Henry Dowd worked as a draughtsman, etcher and painter. He was a regular contributor to ‘The Daily Graphic’ and, in 1906, began to have his work published in ‘Punch Magazine’. He also drew for other magazines and designed posters for London General Omnibus Company and London Underground Electric Railways. He died in Epsom in 1956.
“One critic claimed he was: ‘one of the early pioneers of the vital expressive line that seems to be part of the subject rather than illustrating it,’ says Hilary.
“This is very evident in the children’s illustrations for which he became best known. He started publishing several books of wonderful children’s drawings in the 1930s.”
Two of the books he pencil illustrated were ‘Important People’ (1930) and ‘People of Importance’ (1934) by Brenda E Spencer, in which his illustrations depict delightfully captured images of children.
In 1937 their third book, ‘Serious Business’, was published. By this point the illustrations were watercolours rather than pencil sketches. J H Dowd also published a book on his own called ‘Childhood’ which is predominately pencil sketches of children accompanied by a few assorted poems.
“The original sketches I have are seen in both the ‘Important People’ and ‘People of Importance’ book and in the Childhood book,” says Hilary.
“One sketch from my collection is even on the front cover of the ‘Childhood’ book.
“Who knows where they originally came from or how they got into an auction in Cornwall.
“If only the entire sketch book was still intact. I consider myself very lucky to have found these and pure privileged to own them,” says Hilary.