Christine Sheppard's files of cuttings, and clippings of her father's work, included an interesting challenge for me. Christine believed her father had illustrated "Tarka the Otter" the famous book by Henry Williamson (1932) and possibly "Salar the Salmon" by the same author (1935), but my communications with both the Henry Williamson Society and the Charles Tunnicliffe Society yielded a blank. When I finally saw the latter title I could see again how much Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard's works resembled one another - remember they illustrated The Old Man and the Sea together.
A reference to Tarka came up on the Bridgeman Art Library some years ago and stated the image appeared in Waverley's "Book of Knowledge". But I never found it there. However the current reference on Bridgeman states it appeared in Newnes Pictorial Knowledge which is correct!
After much digging around and following sales on eBay and other places I found the volumes, of the 10 volume set, in which Sheppard's work appeared.And wonderfully I didn't waste my money on 10 volumes for nothing! Allow me to share what I've discovered.
I've written a full article on the set and their history on my other blog. In later articles I am writing about other artists I've tried to identify and credit throughout the set. But back to Raymond Sheppard. I have no way of knowing when a picture was produced by Sheppard or when it first saw print, as the publisher tended - quite reasonably in an encyclopedic set - to re-use pictures. The internal evidence for the set I now own shows this particular edition was published after May 1957, but again Sheppard (who died in 21 April 1958) may have drawn these items much earlier.
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 6, page 401 |
Volume Six contents include "The world and its work – The story of some great industries" which includes among others "Agriculture – producing food from the land". The caption beneath the six images reads:
ANIMALS THAT GIVE US WOOL AND HAIR
The fine Merino Sheep (top, left) comes from Australia. It is really a Spanish Sheep, introduced into Australia from South Africa in 1797. On the right is an English Southdown Sheep. The Shepherd lives on the steppes or grasslands of central Asia, and below him are the dark Alpaca and white Llama of Peru. The silky hair of the Angora Goat from Asia Minor (bottom, left) gives us mohair, from which articles ranging from bootlaces to velvet are made, while to the right is the long-bearded Barbary Sheep of the semi-desert tracts of North Africa. [Emboldening mine]
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 7, page 251 |
In Volume Seven, the collection of articles are quite widespread (full listing here) but we are focussing on "Literature through the ages – Great books and their writers" and specifically "Notable nature Writers". The caption below "Raiders in the Poultry Run" above states:
The illustration above depicts a well-remembered incident from "Wild Life in a Southern County" by Richard Jefferies. It depicts how thieving jackdaws visit the poultry run and steal food put down for the fowls. "Four or five jackdaws will perch on the post and rails," one may read, "intent on the tempting morsels; sitting with their heads a little to one side and peering over. Suddenly one thinks he sees an opportunity; Down he hops and takes a peck."
The whole text of this incident is lovely, so here it is for your pleasure to see how Sheppard captured the author's words
The jackdaws, which—so soon as the rooks pack after nesting and fly in large flocks—are always with them, may be distinguished by their smaller size and the quicker beats of their wings, even when not uttering their well-known cry. Jackdaws will visit the hen-coops if not close to the house, and help themselves to the food meant for the fowls. Poultry are often kept in rickyards, a field or two distant from the homestead, and it is then amusing to watch the impudent attempts of the jackdaws at robbery. Four or five will perch on the post and rails, intent on the tempting morsels: sitting with their heads a little on one side and peering over. Suddenly one thinks he sees an opportunity. Down he hops, and takes a peck, but before he has hardly seized it a hen darts across, running at him with beak extended like lance in rest. Instantly he is up on the rail again, and the impetus of the hen's charge carries her right under him. Then, while her back is turned, down hops a second and helps himself freely. Out rushes another hen, and up goes the jackdaw. A pause ensues for a few minutes: presently a third black rascal dashes right into the midst of the fowls, picks up a morsel, and rises again before they can attack him. The way in which the jackdaw dodge the hens, though alighting among them, and as it were for the moment surrounded, is very clever; and it is laughable to see the cool impudence with which he perches again on the rail, and looks down demurely, not a whit abashed, on the feathered housewife he has just been doing his best
to rob.
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 7, page 254 |
And then a few pages later we see Sheppard's drawing of "Tarka The Otter"! I was so excited to have found this as it's one of many pieces I knew had been published but not where. Little things keep this old man happy!
The context is the following text which I thought worth reproducing:
Henry Williamson [born 1897]
Among those writers from Gilbert White to Richard Jefferies who have loved the English countryside and all its creatures, Henry Williamson will surely take a high place. His love of Nature, combined with his poet's imagination and his skill as a writer, enables him to bring to all who will read the charms of the moor and fen and meadow, and to follow him in the adventures over land and water of some creature of the wilds as in "Tarka the Otter."
Yet the actual writing of this book was done under many handicaps. Williamson himself has told us in "Devon Holiday" how he had difficulty in paying the small rent of his cottage in Devon. His wife was ill and during the day he did the housework and cooking then carried on with his writing in the kitchen "while the baby cried in the crook of my left arm." Much of the work was written after midnight and after the writing came revision. Not until he had completed the seventeenth version of "Tarka" was he satisfied.
It was the magic of this book that brought him fame in 1927; in the following year this story of Dartmoor and Exmoor was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Literature.
Most of his earlier books were written around the country of the Two Rivers, the Taw and the Torridge in Devon, but he has also written a more practical book, "Story of a Norfolk Farm," published in 1941. Later publications of his include "The Phaisan Bird" [sic] (1948) and "Tales of Moorland and Estuary" (1953).
Obviously we now know that Williamson died in 1977 and this piece must have been written after 1953. After the afore-mentioned work he wrote four books in our time period (after 1953 and before 1957) but none in the 'rural' genre mentioned.
Volume Eight's contents range from the seas, heavens, human body and other topics. The one of special interest to us featured in a earlier blog article - but I've shown them here in order to keep things logical - I hope! The specific section in which these plates appeared is "Pastimes at home and out of doors" and the "Angler's Art".
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264a |
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264b |
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264c |
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| Newnes Pictorial Knowledge Volume 8, page 264d |
