Raymond Sheppard and My Book of Flowers, Wild Flowers, Birds, Animals, Trees, Insects, Seashore Animals and Fish

UPDATED MARCH & APRIL 2024

I want to write about the posters that Raymond Sheppard produced for schools. This time I want to bring you books that were used by teachers in class to accompany posters and later I'll reproduce the posters themselves - where I know about them!

Macmillan's Easy Study Series or "The Children's Nature Books" as it says on the title page were edited by E. J. S. Lay (or to give him his full name Edward John Stanley Lay).

The one pictured below first, is dated 1943 inside - it's important for purposes of dating Sheppard's work to note that the cover, the standard tough linen binding, could have been done earlier, and the contents of this title in the series have none of Sheppard's work.

My Book of Flowers, 1943

My Book of Wild Flowers (note extra word in title!) by W. M. (Winifred Mary) Daunt and E. J. S. Lay, 1943 contains descriptions of flower families and has 16 colour plates (illustrated by Miss D. (Dorothy) Fitchew). I have a second copy where I noticed the flowers, the girl is picking, are different and the title has changed above Sheppard's artwork! The date inside the latter (below) is 1949 and to add to the mystery the title page states this is a reprint of the earlier 1943 - thus making me think that the cover is one thing; the contents another. Why do I think this? Sheppard drew a cover for the Kingfisher series of books but his work did not appear in any copy that I have seen and the cover was used for the whole series.

Kingfisher Books

 
Anyway, back to the My Book of series. The Preface credits not only Miss D. Fitchew but also Miss O. Tassart - which again we librarians would call a new edition not a reprint. I assume the flowers on the cover  (from what looks like daffodils changed to bluebells) has been done by Sheppard and not Tassart, who I suspect was missed off the first edition credits -Sheppard is not credited at all.

My Book of Wild Flowers, 1949

My book of birds by W. M. Daunt and E. J. S. Lay, 1943 has a cover of a heron by Sheppard with 16 colour plates by Roland Green ("the well-known bird artist"). There are black & white illustrations in the book and I recognise the uncredited 'LRB' as Leonard Robert Brightwell, but there are others I can't identify.

My Book of Birds, 1943

My book of animals and trees by Kate Harvey & E. J. S. Lay, 1943 has a cover by Sheppard that shows a deer family and the book contains 16 colour plates and black & white illustrations by Stuart Tresilian and Miss Dorothy Fitchew but also includes uncredited Harry Rountree (who signs his distinctive work). There are two drawings I believe are Sheppard on pages 20 and 36 (see below) otherwise I'm sure the others are not.

My Book of Animals and Trees, 1943

Brown rat from p.20

Otter and cub from p.36

My book of insects, seashore animals and fish by Kate Harvey & E. J. S. Lay, 1943 a cover of Koi Carp by Sheppard and contains 16 colour plates . The preface has a credit for the pictures and says "the text is illustrated by pictures of all the creatures in their full, natural colours, painted by the well-known nature artists F. W. Frohawk, A. G. Stubbs and Raymond Sheppard" 

My book of insects, seashore animals and fish, 1943

The illustrations by Frohawk (of insects) are signed and then there are a selection of seashore plants and creatures followed by these fish illustrations. None of the latter two sections are signed and I can't find anything on A. G. Stubbs to see what his/her artwork looked like. However I have found an Annie Grisdale Stubbs (1879-1975) who was a Decorative artist and metalworker (also known as Annie Birkett her married name). But I'm not sure they are the same! Any help appreciated

Freshwater fish:
Minnow, Stickleback. Perch, Trout and Pike

 

Sea fish:
Red Gurnard, Red Mullet, Common Sole, Herring,
Mackerel, Pipe Fish, Armed Bullhead, Eel

Sea fish II:
Cod, John Dory, Sting Ray, Plaice,
Whiting, Lesser-spotted dogfish

It's interesting to see a different treatment by Sheppard of fish in colour plates that I have yet to identify, in an earlier article.

UPDATE APRIL 2024  

I've managed to find a book called "Macmillan's Nature Class Pictures Reference Book" by Kate Harvey MSc and E. J. S. Lay published 1944 which outlines the full curriculum for the teacher. The preface gives me more clues to what happened back then.

 There were 62 accompanying pictures drawn by "D. Fitchew, F. W. Frohawk, Roland Green, Raymond Sheppard, O. Tassart and E. Tresilian" which covers most of what I've written here - except that initial for Cecil Stuart Hazell Tresilian!

The second images shows that "Adventures into Nature" reprint the images fro school children - see below.

 

ADVENTURES INTO NATURE ------------------------------------------

Adventures into Nature cover

Also of interest is that Macmillan and Company reprinted in different order many parts of this series in a title "Adventures into Nature" (first published 1944) with two parallel reading streams "A" and "B". They used the same title for both this and the above series:  "Macmillan's Easy Study Series (General Editor E.J.S. Lay)".

1. The plate above called Freshwater Fish was reprinted in Adventures into Nature Book IIA (and presumably B) as Class Picture 58 (Plate 4). 
2. The second plate is called "Common Sea Fish" in Adventures into Nature Book IIIA (and presumably B) as Class Picture 59 (Plate 12).
3.  The third plate is called "Common Sea Fish" in Adventures into Nature Book IVA (and in IVB) as Class Picture 60 (Plate 12) in both books..

The otter (B&W) image above is also reprinted in Adventures into Nature Book IIIA on page 52. 

The introduction mentions that 

[...]There are, in each book, sixteen plates in full colour drawn by well-known nature artists—Mr. Roland Green, Mr. F. W. Frohawk, Miss D. Fitchew and Mr. S. Tresilian. The coloured plates are reproduced wholly or in part from the Class Pictures prepared for the use of teachers; they are supplemented by numerous drawings in black-and-white. [...] Each book contains chapters dealing with birds, beasts, insects, fish, wild flowers and trees.

I checked all 4 volumes and found 15 of Roland Green's 16 bird colour plates were reprinted as well as all Stuart Treslilian's animals and all three Sheppard plates - although he is not mentioned any of the 4 books in this series! Also notice Tresilian nows has his familiar initial S for Stuart.

KINGFISHER BOOKS ------------------------------------------
The copy of the Kingfisher Books (Second Series #B13) above "A Donkey called Maggie" by George H. Mallory has internal illustrations by Ferelith Eccles Williams and was published in 1958. Sheppard died in 1958 and the cover was done prior to 1958 as some of the series - which are hard to pin down - date back to the early 1950s.

I've listed all the known books in the series on my other blog as none to date have been discovered with Sheppard illustrations beyond the cover. Many have been listed as illustrated by Sheppard, but each one I track down is incorrectly listed. He merely drew the cover.  Read more about the series here on Visual Rants.