Amy Millicent Sowerby

Three Children Book Illustration - Female Illustrator - Turn of the Century

1906

Sarah Noble Ives, artist (1864-1944). Original drawing of three Dutch children, with an ink inscription reading: “Full Page / 6 Buff / Three children sliding on the ice / upon a summer’s day” above image. Ink, watercolor, and gouache on linen/board. Illustration for Mother Goose...

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...

Legendary female illustrator creates a graphic and tightly designed triple portrait of her signature subjects. Kids! Signed lower right. Unframed on heavy illustration board. Grace Drayton had a recognizable style which is a hallmark of all great artists. Instantly recognizable, a Grace Drayton subject is a stylized child with a cherubic style, often with round faces, plump bodies, rosy cheeks, and a happy disposition. Three Rosy Cheek Children is an excellent example of her best work. Grace Drayton Born: Grace Gebbie October 14, 1878 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US Died: January 31, 1936 (aged 58) Cartoonist, Illustrator Grace G. Wiederseim Notable works Campbell Soup Kids Dolly Dimples Dolly Dingle...

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...

JOHN GEORGE SOWERBY (1849-1914) Tailpiece for “A Rainy Day” Watercolour heightened with white, circular Unframed, in mount only Diameter 7 cm., 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.17. The current work was reproduced in Sowerby and Crane’s 1881 children’s book...

Signature: Unsigned "More Precious than Rubies," by Katherine Sproehnle and Jane Grant, illustrated by Guernsey Moore for the Saturday Evening Post, June 7, 1924.

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...

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...