Raymond Sheppard and Heidi and Dog Crusoe

In a previous article on Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, I commented that Sheppard had drawn for Blackie & Son and there were various reprints under different series titles. I have a copy of the classic Heidi that on the dustjacket states "Blackie's Famous Books" and on the inside flyleaf of the cover states "Blackie's Library of Famous Books". The former is a reasonable abbreviation in order to fit the title on the cover!

Heidi cover by Raymond Sheppard

List of Blackie's Library of famous Books

The difficulty in identifying whether Sheppard drew the covers for all these (let alone the illustrations - if there are any) is they are so common but these specific editions with dustjackets are so hard to find!

Here are the internal pictures of the Heidi:

Frontispiece “Oh, I know what these are for”

p.117 “Oh, the dear little things, how pretty they are!”

p.169 The moonlight fell on a white figure standing motionless in the doorway

p.317 “Look! Look! I can make proper steps!”

Interestingly a bookseller in Spain of all places, has an original art piece (costing £596.03 with £10.12 shipping ...at today's currency conversion rate!) which does not appear in any of the three editions of Heidi illustrated by Sheppard I have seen. This can be viewed here. I have reproduced the illustration below which the bookseller (Escalinata, librería) describes (in my rough translation) as:

ORIGINAL DRAWING. Unpublished illustration for HEIDI, Blackie & Son Limited edition, illustrated by Raymond Sheppard, signed by the author [sic] and in pencil final size and page number is indicated. 

The bookseller kindly sent the scan below for which I am extremely grateful.

Unpublished Heidi drawing by Raymond Sheppard

UPDATE JULY 2020
Gina Lobiondo has let me know she has seen an edition with the above illustration - see below

Taken from ebay

Thus proving this blog will never be finished!

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DOG CRUSOE
The full text of this story written in 1860 by R. M. Ballantyne (24 April 1825 – 8 February 1894) can be read on Project Gutenberg in your favoured e-format, and tells the story of young Dick Varley who saves the life of a Newfoundland puppy from being roasted alive by Native Americans. He then has to learn how to discipline and care for the dog and their adventures in North America in the land of the Red Indians makes thrilling reading for younger people. Its sub-title was "A tale of the Western prairies".

The copy I have has only a cover illustration by Raymond Sheppard showing a Newfoundland running along with two prairie riders and the spine illustration shows a boy being defended from a mountain lion by the dog. 

This Blackie edition of Dog Crusoe (the title of which appears listed above) has a different look from the other books mentioned here. Hopefully in writing about this some keen collector might get in contact and help complete this picture!

The only inner illustration is a colour frontispiece by -I think - Arch(?) Webb. If I'm reading this right, there is an excellent article on him on the Look & Learn site

The Dog Crusoe cover illustrations by Sheppard

Frontis by A. Webb.

Raymond Sheppard and Enid Blyton (Part One)

Raymond Sheppard and Enid Blyton 

Part One: Fourth Holiday Book

(All the illustrations below are from the Fourth Holiday Book)

Fourth Holiday Book page 38

I'll keep Sheppard's fantastic illustrations for Enid Blyton's books "The Adventures of Pip" and "More Adventures of Pip" for another day, but mention here some unusual illustrations by Raymond Sheppard.

Fourth Holiday Book page39

There were 12 "Enid Blyton Holiday Books" published between 1946 and 1957 according to the fantastic Enid Blyton Society website. Why Sheppard wasn't in the first three I have no idea but he had work appear in 5 of the 12 - see the list below.

His artwork in these books leave me feeling uncertain. For example, in these first two pictures, Tiny appears like a Mabel Lucie Attwell type cute figure and the Pixie's head in the first picture is so distorted with Tiny looking at his pot, not him.

There are some redeeming features in this artwork, such as the hedgehog and tree on page 120, the hullabaloo on page 135, the big oak tree on page 136 but here for your reading pleasure are all Sheppard's illustrations in the Fourth Holiday Book

Fourth Holiday Book page40

Fourth Holiday Book page41

Fourth Holiday Book page42

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Below are listed all the book in the series that featured Sheppard artwork. I do not have a single copy with a dustjacket so have borrowed the images - again - from the Enid Blyton Society

The Fourth Holiday Book (Published 1949)

The Balloon-Pipe - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

Silly-One and The Jewels - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

Billy And The Brownie - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Fifth Holiday Book (Published 1950) 

The Sneezing Dog - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

Tippy's Trick - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Whispering Pool - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Sixth Holiday Book (Published 1951)

The Cuckoo In The Clock- Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Wrong Bus - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Eighth Holiday Book (Published 1953)

Wagger Goes To The Show - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Spanking Umbrella - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

The Ninth Holiday Book (Published 1954)

A Visitor To Dinner - Illustrated by Raymond Sheppard

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Fourth Holiday Book page117

Fourth Holiday Book page118

Fourth Holiday Book page119

The position we see of the potagonist above shows a figure with weight and anticipation in the face. Lovely!

Fourth Holiday Book page120

The tree above is shown in two colours much like railway posters in the early 20th century.

Fourth Holiday Book page121

Fourth Holiday Book page122

It's obvious above that the pixie has an elongated head, so perhaps I'm being too hasty in my comments above!

Fourth Holiday Book page130

Fourth Holiday Book page131

Fourth Holiday Book page132

In the pictures above I think Sheppard draws the proportions of a child in a child's car brilliantly.

Fourth Holiday Book page133

Fourth Holiday Book page134

Fourth Holiday Book page135

Fourth Holiday Book page136

I love trees and this one is a grand old fellow

Fourth Holiday Book page137

Have a great time browsing the contents listings of the books at the EB site with their typically Blyton titles here (and scroll down their pages for some pictures from them too!)

Raymond Sheppard and Car magazines

Autocar 22 Feb 1952

Raymond Sheppard produced many drawings for advertisements over the years - the most famous being the Esso Tiger (more of which another day). I wanted to focus on Autocar and The Motor magazines today as I was so surprised to discover Sheppard here!

Autocar 12 Dec 1952

According to Grace's Guide (the leading source of information about industry and manufacturing in Britain from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the present time),Iliffe and Sons Ltd, of Coventry created "The Autocar (price 3d. weekly), which was founded as far back as 1895, and has always been regarded as the leading motor paper and the authority on all motoring matters, not only in this country, but also abroad. It enjoys the largest circulation of any automobile paper published throughout the world.".  

Apparently it still has 16 editions worldwide! "In 1988, it absorbed its long-time rival The Motor magazine, founded on January 28 1903, briefly calling itself Autocar & Motor afterwards, before reverting to Autocar", says Wikipedia.

The cover picture appears to have started in the 1920s from covers I can find on the Net, with major car companies and also secondary car industries taking the poll position such as 'Fram Oil Cleaner' and more relevant to this article 'Lockheed Hydraulic Brakes'.

The Sheppard illustrations are in full colour and as you can see show a black-headed gull, a kingfisher, a sparrowhawk catching a pigeon in mid-air, a kingfisher and a herd of elephants. Both magazines had similar covers which must have caused confusion for the gentleman commuting to the City when grabbing it from a railway newspaper stand in 1952 and 1953

Would they have sold more car parts, or got a loyal following for Lockheed as a result of a beautifully drawn naturalistic setting? I doubt it myself, but I'm glad Sheppard got the job!

As a footnote all of these covers have the initials C.J.L. on them under the 'banner' Lockheed blurb. Any ideas want this meant? The advertising firm who sold the artwork to the magazine?

The Motor 26 Nov 1952

The Motor 24 Dec 1952

  

Autocar 18 Sep 1953
and also The Motor 4 March 1953

Raymond Sheppard and Noah's Ark Annual 1937

Raymond Sheppard was born in 1913 and as with all artists from this era that I look at, it is difficult to find his earliest published professional work. Why am I being so pedantic? Because those of you who have read my short piece in Illustrators #2 might remember he won a prize in a drawing competition at the age of 7 years of age. Here's a rough copy of the Observer of 13 March 1921

Observer 13 march 1921 p.

However I'd like to add that I suspect the following is one of his earliest professional pieces to appear in print. I know of some Boy's Own Paper work in 1938 and books in 1939. Steve Holland answered an email regarding the pictures on his site saying he wasn't sure he had time to explore them any further, but liked the covers when he discovered them in an archive, having only the time to photograph them.

I have scanned the two pieces in Noah's Ark Annual 1937 that are signed ("Sheppard") together with the cover, although I do wonder about some other illustrations in the book that although unsigned might be Sheppard. Noah's Ark Annual ran from 1934-1937 and was published by Amalgamated Press and thankfully for me has page numbers!

The first Sheppard illustration shows a boy and man in a trap in a farmyard with piglets running in the background and a cockerel in the foreground. The second is of three girls (and their terrier) at the pond or lake's edge feeding flying gulls and - what appear to be -  giant swans!

Cover - Artist unknown

Page 29: A day with Dobbin

Page 75 Feeding the birds in the park

Raymond Sheppard Exhibition review

Wildlife Art Gallery frontage

On 21st June 2013 my wife and I visited the Wildlife Art Gallery exhibition of Raymond Sheppard, and Ralph Thompson's work. Our first surprise was that the Gallery had moved next-door from its previous position! The new space is open and allows lots of pieces to be exhibited on the walls.
 

One wall with the book on an easel

You can see the brilliantly produced book "Ramond Sheppard: Capturing the moment" placed on the side. I bought a copy at the previous exhibition and it wasn't until crossing the road afterwards and having a cup of tea, when I browsed the book and found my name in the credits. I was so proud!

Andrew Haslen's idea to make a 'collage' of sketches works well

On visiting Christine Sheppard once I saw all these 'scrapbook' pieces of original Sheppard artwork, but I think what Andrew Haslen (and I believe, his wife, whose name I don't know unfortunately) have done with these in framing them together works exceedingly well. It looks so much more powerful in the original - here's the picture from the website (borrowed with permission)

Farm 'collage'

There were some studies I don't remember having seen before so I had another lovely surprise. These bird studies are partially coloured with pencil, I think. I was only taking these pictures for my reference and as you can see there were lots of reflections on the glass, but scroll down for better versions.

Too many reflections!

Ditto

Studies from the Bird House

These studies include the 'Hodgsons Barbet', the African 'White-throated Bulbul', the 'Indian Roller' and the 'Nepal Hill Myna'. You can read all about Hodgson on the Natural History website, and a Google Image search for the Indian Roller is worth doing just for the colours! There's a fascinating article on the Hill Mynah family on Wikipedia with a nice map of their differences

Red-rumped green toucanet from Ecuador

The above are studies of, what London Zoo obviously called 'Red-rumped green toucanet' - I imagine Sheppard would have read the labels. They are also known as Crimson-rumped Toucanets.

The Crimson-rumped Toucanet is not the only species of Aulacorhynchus toucanet whose rump is red - but it is the only red-rumped member of the genus in northern South America, because of this, it is unlikely to be confused with any other members in its genus. Crimson-rumped Toucanets are fairly common in humid montane forest from southwestern Venezuela south to southwestern Ecuador. A noisy, inquisitive, social bird, this species is usually found in pairs or small groups foraging for fruits, invertebrates, small vertebrate prey in the canopy.

The above quote comes from Cornell University's Neotropical Birds page where you can even listen to one! Click the above link.

Pen & ink of dog

I love pen and ink drawings so got close up to this one of a dog. Go and spend some time having a browse of clearer pictures at the Wildlife Art Gallery's site and once again thanks to Andrew for permission to use some of the pictures on this blog.

Elephant