Amy Millicent Sowerby

The Wise Book Children's Book Illustration- Woman Illustrator - Arts and Crafts

1906

A British Female Illustrator paints a warm and fuzzy scene from a child's imagination, with ducks and teddy bears gazing at a "Mr Willoughby's eyeglass" standing on it's edge as it l...

Wonderland Tale - Fairy Tale - Female Illustrator - The work is meticulously rendered in an exacting technique of line to the point of wonderment. Yet, Baxter can obtain an ethereali...

Mother Goose is a French fairy tale and later of English nursery rhyme. In this illustration, we see an oversized Goose in a yellow bonnet elevated on a step and engaging with an attentively curious young girl and young boy. Large vases of flowers frame them. Titled in pencil center bottom: "Goosey, Goosey Gander. Where do you wander? Signed Margaret Evans Price...

Signed "Violet Moore Higgins" in right-center image. Taped to board and matted. Story illustration for unknown publication. Though unconfirmed, it is possible this illustration was produced for The Little Lame Prince by Miss Mulock (Dinah Maria Mulock Craik) (Chicago: Albert Whitman Co., 1927, chapter VII). Violet Moore Higgins, born Violet Idelle Moore, attended the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1900s, and then settled in New York as an illustrator for children's books and magazines. She has illustrated books like 'Pinocchio', 'Heidi', 'Hans Brinker' and 'The Three Bears'. In the 1910s she made 'Picture Puzzle...

Gertrude Braud 19th Century Watercolour on paper, entitled on original backing paper Image size: 11 x 16 1/2 inches (28 x 42 cm)

JOHN GEORGE SOWERBY (1849-1914) Phoebe - The Open Window Watercolour heightened with white Unframed, in mount only 8 by 7 cm., 3 by 2 ¼ in. (mount size 25.5 by 20 cm., 10 by 8 in.) Reproduced: J G Sowerby & Thomas Crane, At Home, Marcus Ward & Co, 1881, p.42. The current work was reproduced in Sowerby and Crane’s 1881 children’s book, At Home, where is accompanied by the following verse: All the morning, all the morning, Sat she till her tasks were done; While without were birds and blossoms, And the pleasant sun. And the leaves in ev’ry rustle, And the birds in ev’ry song:- “Phoebe, Phoebe, are you coming? Phoebe, don’t be long!” Whispered thro’ the open window Gentle breezes, passing by:- “Phoebe, are you coming, Phoebe? Come before we die!” Till the clock, with joyful measure, Struck the hour when work is o’er; Crying “Ponto’” Phoebe vanished Through the open door. Whither sped out nimble Phoebe? She is in the study now; Ponto heard her with she called him, - Answered back “Bow-wow!’ “Ponto, tho’ the birds and garden, Called me all the morning thro’ I had first to do my lessons – So I think should you.” Poor old Ponto! He is longing, Longing for his game of play, And the garden – ah: but Phoebe Has a word to say. “Beg then – beg, sir – do you hear me? No, no, Ponto, that is wrong; Paws up! Steady! Ah, that’s better! Good dog, come along!” John George Sowerby was born into a prosperous Gateshead family of glass manufactures and artists. He inherited the family business, the Ellison Glass Works, one of the world’s largest producers of pressed glass, where he introduced designs inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. Initially he combined his energies at the glass works with his work as an illustrator and painter of landscapes and floral subjects with a Pre-Raphaelite intensity, strong colours and rich detail. He exhibited many of these paintings at the Royal Academy. In the 1880s he collaborated with Newcastle artist, Henry Hetherington Emmerson, on illustrations for the children’s books Afternoon Tea (1880) and The May Blossom (1881). Although were critically very well received but the publications were attacked by Kate Greenaway who considered them too close to her own work. Sowerby then went on to produce highly aesthetic illustrated books At Home (1881) and At Home Again (1883), with decorations by Thomas Crane. Gleeson White, editor of The Studio magazine stated that in Afternoon Tea Sowerby “set a new fashion for ‘aesthetic’ little quartos’ (The Studio, 1897). Roger Dixon in Belfast Publishing (Oxford University Press, 2011, p.79) considered these At Home and At Home Again to be “among the loveliest books ever produced.” Never very wise as a business man, in the early 1880s he left Ellison Glass Works being declared bankrupt in 1884. He returned to the works again as a paid employee. Sowerby’s daughter, Millicent Sowerby...

The fairy tale of the little mouse is an original modern artwork realized in the early 20th century by an Anonymous artist. Mixed colored pencil, ink and watercolor realized for a fairy tale book...

FRANK WATKINS (1863-1929) The Boat Builder Giant Pen and ink, unframed, in conservation mount only 20.5 by 29.5 cm., 8 by 11 ¾ in. (frame size 36.5 by 45 cm., 14 ½ by 17 ¾ in.) Frank Henry Watkins was born in Lambeth, London and was the son of a bank clerk. He worked as a children’s book and comic illustrator in the early 20th century, drawing for many children’s stories including Dolly Twoshoes (1901); The Wonder and Dolly Daydream (1902); Illustrated Chips and Dick and Daisy (1919-1921) and also for Merry Moments. He provided book illustrations for The Man From the Moon by Philip Carmichael (1909); The Sun’s Babies by Edith Howes (1910); The King Who Never Died: Tales of King Arthur by Dorothy Senior (1910) and Fairy Rings...