![[LEAR, EDWARD] and FOSTER, WILLIAM (illustrator) Eighteen original ink drawings for the 1889 edition of Lear's Nonsense Drolleries: The Owl and The Pussy-Cat and The Duck and The Kangaroo.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/246/1399246.jpg?itok=uaPsNoGC)
Lot Details
Lot 62
[LEAR, EDWARD] and FOSTER, WILLIAM (illustrator) Eighteen original ink drawings for the 1889 edition of Lear's Nonsense Drolleries: The Owl & The Pussy-Cat and The Duck & The Kangaroo.
The full series of 17 published drawings plus one additional unpublished drawing (together 18 drawings on 17 cards, one card contains two published drawings). The ink drawings each signed "W. Foster" and with the text of the story pencilled below the images, the cover illustration initialed "W.F." and with pasted on text, the final drawing an unused printers device depicting two frogs operating a press. The sizes of cards vary slightly, the largest 8 1/2 x 6 inches (22 x 16 cm); housed in a cloth case with the copy of the book described below. Mat toned, the cover illustration slightly dust soiled and with a few spots, pinholes to most corners, a few other pencil notations. Provenance: Justin G. Schiller (booklabel to verso of the cover drawing); Together with the published book Lear's Nonsense Drolleries: The Owl & The Pussy-Cat and The Duck & The Kangaroo. London & New York: Warne, 1889. Original cloth backed pictorial boards. The boards rubbed and with a few minor chips, endpapers toned.
Provenance: Philip Hofer (booklabel); Justin G. Schiller (booklabel); purchased by Mary K. Young, 1995
A fine and complete series of original artwork by William Foster (1853-1924) to illustrate two of Edward Lear's best loved poems. First published in 1870, the poem is known to have had a great impact on Beatrix Potter, who received a copy from her father as a Christmas gift when she was just four years old. The present edition was issued in 1889, just a few years before her illustrated picture letters sent to children illustrating the story, such as the 1897 example offered in this sale. This set with the distinguished provenance of Harvard professor Philip Hofer and early and rare children's books specialist Justin G. Schiller.
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C The Mary K. Young Collection
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