Raymond Sheppard and Childrens posters

***UPDATE JUNE 2024***

Raymond Sheppard had further connections with Enid Blyton beyond illustrating some of her Holiday books. He drew some posters for which Blyton wrote stories. The posters are roughly 20 1/2" x 16 1/4" (52cm x 41cm) and are often cut to clean the pinholes and tatty edges when they come up for sale on eBay. These were all published by George Newnes and there were 84 in the set. My detailed information comes from the excellent Enid Blyton Society webpages:

Two Years in the Infant School (Box 1 Topics 1-21) by Enid Blyton
Snails at School - Story: Topic 17 Specially Written
The Snail -Poem: Topic 17 Specially Written

Snails (Topic 17)

Two Years in the Infant School (Box 2 Topics 22-42) by Enid Blyton contains the Oak tree
1. A Basket of Acorns - Story: Topic 31 Specially Written
2. Bunty's Dream - Story: Topic 31 Specially Written
3. Good Dog Rover! - Story: Topic 31 Specially Written
4. Acorn Girls - Poem: Topic 31 Specially Written

The Oak Tree (Topic 31)

 Two Years in the Infant School (Box 3 Topics 43-63) by Enid Blyton contains "Birds in winter - Swans, Rooks, Starlings"
1. Sammy, Sue and the Swans - Story: Topic 43 Specially Written
2. Jake's Horse - Story: Topic 43 Specially Written
3. Kate's Cake - Story: Topic 43 Specially Written
4. The Big Black Rook - Poem: Topic 43 Specially Written

Birds in winter - Swans, Rooks, Starlings (Topic 43)

But these weren't the only posters he drew.

Teaching in Practice for Infant Schools (Projects and pictures).

He also provided two for Macmillan's Teaching in Practice for Infant Schools (Projects and pictures).

Poster Index

The 75 original colour printed educational school posters measured approximately 13.5 x 14 inches. Interestingly they feature amongst others, Mickey Mouse, Bonzo, Punch & Judy  as well as Princess Elizabeth as a child. The illustrators include C.N. Dilly, G. Halsey, L.R. Steele, Cora E.M. Paterson, G. Studdy, and Mabel Lucie Attwell amongst others. They originally came in a black case which has a list of all the posters (see above).

The two accompanying posters by Sheppard are titled "Harold makes a movie" and "Magic music" - sometimes mistakenly called "Magic Muse"

Harold makes a movie (#73)

Magic Music (#75)

The author given for this set, I assume wrote materials for the teacher to use to accompany the pictures, is E J S Lay and it was published by Macmillan and Co Limited., in 1934. I've talked about Lay here because he edited the series for which Sheppard drew covers and some colour plates.

UPDATE
A very kind eBay seller (mi_vintage) sent me some images from a set of the books she is selling. I asked whether either of the above pictures featured in the fifth volume. 

Volume I-V

This is what she sent:

Volume V p. 1708

Volume V p. 1709

 

Volume V p. 1710

Volume V p.1716

So we can see Sheppard's illustrations were copied and projects written to accompany them. That commission brief must have been interesting! Now if I had expanding pockets and expanding walls, I'd have made an offer!