Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Nine

The contents of this volume (of the ten volume set) :

VOLUME NINE: The story of the early civilisations in the world’s history – how learning and understanding spread from the Mediterranean; How Britain and other countries of the world are governed – concerning Parliaments and people: Local government and courts of law; A children’s treasury of verse – Little masterpieces of to-day and yesterday; Your own special corner: Reading, writing and arithmetic – a helping hand for tiny folk; First steps in drawing, “How to make” and geography – a helping hand for tiny folk; Familiar things and how they are made – industries that serve our everyday needs; The secret of man’s supremacy – about the mental equipment of the human being; Questions and answers on things that interest you and me

H. M. BROCK

I’ve not written about H. M. Brock as I feel he is too well known to worry about and placing these images here helps others who are interested to investigate further. In case you want more information on Henry Matthew Brock, try The Saturday Gallery, and of course Wikipedia. The University of Reading has an archive of around 2000 books in which his work appeared.

ELLIS SILAS

I feel the Shambles in York may have been an inspiration for the first piece above. Silas, of course has work in almost every volume of the Newnes Pictorial Knowledge, and I’ve said a lot about him already.

TREYER EVANS

Treyer Meredith Evans (1889–1958), was most famous for cartoons in Punch and illustrating some of Enid Blyton’s books. In this book, he does quite a few illos. He contributed to Girls’ Realm, The Humorist, Little Folks, London Magazine, Punch, Scout, Sketch, Strand, and Tatler. But despite this, his biography is sparse on details. There are From: Alan Horne, Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Book Illustrators [with additions I found that Horne omitted]

EVANS, Treyer Meredith
b.1889
Born in Chichester, [the son of a dentist]. Evans worked as a commercial illustrator for Pearson [1909] and Hulton [1910]. “He was a bright, stylish illustrator who worked in pen and ink or pencil, often with broad expanses of shading.” (Peppin, 1983.) [He lived at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire]
Books illustrated include:

A. Brazil: Loyal to the School (Blackie, nd),
A Fortunate Term (Blackie, 1921),
Monitress Merle (Blackie,1922);
F. Inchfawn: Will You Come As Well? (Ward Lock, 1931),
The Verse Book of a Garden (Ward Lock, 1932);
E. Blyton: The Christmas Book (Macmillan, 1944);
A. Armstrong: England Our England (Dakers, 1948);
G. Trease: The Hills of Varna (Macmillan, 1948);
E. Blyton: The Mystery of the Strange Bundle (Methuen, 1952), The Mystery of Holly Lane (Methuen, 1953), The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage (Methuen, 1954);
M.E. Procter: Three Wise Men (Blandford Press, 1958).

Having had a look at his work in various books and magazines online, I think I can see why Peppin and Micklethwait mention his changing style according to the work he was doing. Some is almost Art Deco; others are pure pen and ink work typical of the day and yet others have a designer quality.

MARJORIE M. THORP

If it hadn’t been for eBay and those wonderful sellers who list properly, I might have had another blank on my hands. But a copy of News Chronicle’s Boy’s & Girl’s Story Book No.5 by Enid Blyton (1937) shows clearly this is the same person. Then of course I checked the marvellous Enid Blyton Society pages and found “The artist illustrated 66 magazine covers. Also credited with illustrating 156 magazine stories.” and in this context we are talking about “Sunny Stories”. She does a few more illustrations in this volume.

I wonder if she is Marjorie Marie Thorp who was born on 17 March 1911 in Kingston, London, as her Father is listed as a Draughtsman in the 1921 Census and she married in April 1933 in East Sheen, Surrey to Roy Charles Bloomfield, where her father is now “Artist” and she has no occupation listed. In 1939 she is living with her in-laws’ extended family at “Story Patch”, Stanners Hill Manor, Mimbridge – i.e. Chobham, Woking. Her father-in-Law is listed as having the occupation of “Service Station & Garage Proprietor” and her husband was also involved unsurprisingly in garage work. She died in October 1993 in Kingsbridge, Devon. Let’s hope I’ve got the right Marjorie!

DENNIS ADAMS

The Aboriginal dance (top) is a nice colourful work as is the Barrier Reef (shown here in an earlier volume) by Australian artist Dennis Adams (1914 – 2001). His biography can be found on the Naval Historical Society of Australia website.

Coincidentally for me, he was stationed at Thorney Island (as was my Dad later). The photo below shows Adams in 1944 painting “a motif on the Mosquito aircraft flown by Wing Commander Peter Panitz, Commanding Officer of 464 Squadron RAAF. Panitz then had the squadron sign writer print ‘Bash The Plurry Hun Boss’ under it. The painting was completed a few days before Panitz and his navigator were killed in action over Dijon, France.” – thanks to the Australian War Memorial site. If you wonder what ‘plurry’ means, it’s a euphemism for “bloody,”

HELEN JACOBS (1888-1970)

Does Helen Jacobs need any introduction? Well Chris Beetles has covered that for me here.

NEAVE PARKER (1909-1961)

Lastly for this volume we have an interesting illustration which is credited to Illustrated London News. I’ve obtained a copy of that version as the reproduction is better than that of the image on page 392 of this volume.

*Illustrated London News* 5 February 1955

NEXT: VOLUME TEN!

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Eight

Oct21

Volume Eight of this set has the following contents:

VOLUME EIGHT: The freedom of the seas – the story of our ships and the sailors who man them; The wonders of the heavens – the story of astronomers and their work; The magic art of writing; A guide to good manners for boys and girls; The story of the human body – a marvellous machine and what it does; Favourite hobbies – Pastimes at home and out of doors; Favourite hobbies – Things to make and do: Models and model making; Favourite hobbies – Things to make and do: Handcrafts of many kinds

ELLIS SILAS

I did wonder, when I have completed my run through these ten volumes, whether I should go back and space out some information about artists. For example in this volume we have a lot of Ellis Silas. But I must simplify my habits, so below you’ll find a mini-biog.

“SILAS, Ellis, U.A. (born 1883).
Marine and landscape painter in oil and water-colour; stained-glass artist. Born in London, son of Louis F. Silas a decorative artist and founder member of the United Artists, and grandson of Edouard Silas a composer. Studied art under his father and Walter Sickert. Exhibited at the R.A., R.I., R.O.I. He was a war artist for the Australian Government 1914-18, and spent three years in Papua painting and collecting curios which he described in his book A Primitive Arcadia. President of the London Sketch Club 1930. Lived in London for many years.” ~Taken from: Grant Waters, Dictionary of British Artists working 1900-1950

In the Daily Mirror of 22 May 1916, I found “On Saturday their Majesties received at Buckingham Palace Signaller Ellis Silas, an artist attached to the 16th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force”. This publicity could have done him no harm at the time and indeed his work started appearing in The Bystander from 1920 and from 1925 The Sketch and the Graphic included his work. His three year ‘sojourn’ to the South Seas and the exploits he encountered were wonderful pieces for the post WWI public (from which he wrote “A Primitive Arcadia”and he wrote an article for Wide World in the same year). From October his work also appeared in Illustrated London News. For the Coronation issue of The Sketch, he drew a full page of Elizabeth I’s coronation.

A short bibliography

Crusading at Anzac Anno Domini 1915. Pictured and described by Signaller E. Silas, etc. London: British-Australasian, 1916
The Big Picture Book of Trains, Ships, Motors and Aeroplanes by E. Chivers Davies, London & Sydney: George G. Harrap & Co, 1920
The Story of the British Navy, by Harold Felix Baker Wheeler, London : G. G. Harrap & Co, 1922
The art of the Trobriand Islanders, London: Studio Publications, 1924
Catching fish with the hands : unique methods of the dusky fishermen of the coral seas, London: [Unknown], 1925
A Primitive Arcadia: an artist in Papua, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1926
Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley, London: G. G. Harrap & Co, 1927
The iron pirate: a plain tale of strange happenings on the sea by Max Pemberton, London: Associated Newspapers, c.1930
Norman knights set out for the Holy Land, London: Evans Brothers., 1936
The Flying Pirates by D. E. Marsh, London: G. G. Harrap & Co, 1938
A picture map of the ancient world, London: Evans Brothers., 1939
Atlantic Adventure by Conor O’Brien, London: G. G. Harrap & Co, 1943
Living among Cannibals: An account of the author’s experiences on the island of Malekula by Thomas Harnett Harrison, London: G. G. Harrap & Co, 1943
North Wales, by British Railways, 1950
Orient Line to Australia : Sydney Heads [POSTER] [London: Orient Line?], c.1950

So Ellis Silas was certainly famous back then!

WILLIAM MCDOWELL

William John Patton McDowell (not to be confused with the Suffolk artist McDowall) was born 26 November 1888 and self-taught. Painter, draughtsman and commercial artist, born in the shipbuilding town of Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, who on leaving school was apprenticed in the drawing office of the engineering firm Vickers. In the 1921 census he is listed as “Artist Sketcher” for Vickers. By 1939 he was listed at “Novelist & Artist” He married Gertrude Evelyn Duerden in 1913, who was born in Burnley in 1889. McDowell was to become a member of the Institute of Naval Architects. Shortly after World War I McDowell left naval architecture to become a full-time artist, producing murals for the liner Mauretania and other vessels, eventually settling in Wallasey, Cheshire. Many of his own paintings were of historical or maritime subjects, shown at the Walker Art Gallery and elsewhere. In 1919, his picture “Stern all-strike!” was included in the RA Summer Exhibition and reviewed positively in The Globe (3 May 1919). During World War II he was commissioned in the Royal Naval Scientific Service. McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock, holds his work. His work appeared in many London weeklies and monthlies including Illustrated London News . He was Honorary Secretary of the Chelsea Arts Club and member of the Society of Marine Artists. He died in Surrey on 21 December 1950.

CYRIL COWELL

I’ve written about Cowell here, but couldn’t resist sharing this as an example of dated suggestions! That bed does NOT look safe! And the next image is of a sea I’ve never travelled on. For some reason my journeys tend to be on choppy water!

Raymond Sheppard also produced four colour plates in this volume which I’ve reproduced and written about on my other blog

ERNEST ARIS (Alfred Ernest Walter George Aris, FZS, SGA)

Search the V&A Collections and you’ll see quite a few artworks including posters. He has a Wikipedia page too

JOHN RIDDLE BURGESS

J.R.B. or JRB? I couldn’t find any likely candidates in Peppin (1983), Horne (1994) but my old standby (Kirkpatrick, 2019) has an entry for one “J. R. Burgess” and on further investigation I found that Robert J. Kirkpatrick had shared the information on my old friend Steve Holland’s blog – allowing me to link to it for you. And one image in particular shows the same initials written in the same way!

John Riddle Burgess was born in 1880 in Shepherds Bush, London, married Margaret Underwood on 3 September 1914 and J.R.B. died at St. Stephens Hospital, Barnet, on 20 July 1966. Thanks to Steve and particularly Robert J Fitzpatrick.

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Seven

Oct14

I’ve now reached Volume Seven of this 10 volume set, the contents of which are:

VOLUME SEVEN: Great painters of all nations – how they lived and what they achieved; Literature through the ages – The lives of the great poets; The lives of the great composers – a story of music and musicians; Literature through the ages – Great books and their writers; Wonders of architecture – The story of the builder and his art; Great thinkers of all nations – From the ancient philosophers to the scientists of to-day

My aim, as usual is to show and chat about the artwork I find interesting or that may help fans of certain artists find their work in obscure places. I tend to avoid art that’s reprinted from other works unless it’s particularly striking!

Christopher Gifford Ambler

We’ve talked about Ambler in depth when looking at his work in Volume Five. In this volume, besides the image above he also contributed several full page scenes of scientists, like the one above between pages 367 and 395.

Richard Howard Penton (RHP)

Page 169 – Artwork by Richard Howard Penton

You can read about Penton in Volume Two‘s entry. I scanned this as I thought it stood out as atmospheric – and a bonus was the signature!

UNKNOWN ARTIST – again!

I think – and am willing to be corrected – this is the same artist whose work appears in Volume Five who I described as an early Joyce Mercer – for want of a better indexing/search term! I’m hoping one day to find out who she is (and I feel it is a ‘she’) and then amend these entries with her name.

ELLIS SILAS

Silas is mentioned in Volume Four and this image is added here as I always liked the fictional character of Long John Silver. There is other work by Silas in this volume.

ERNEST ARIS (Alfred Ernest Walter George Aris, FZS, SGA)

Aris is so well known, I need say nothing, but search the blog and you’ll trip over lots of examples of his wonderful work.

“B LACK” = Barbara Lack??

Why have I written B. Lack? I tried to search for “Black” and even in Buckman’s Dictionary of artists in Britain since 1945, there are 10 artists listed with that surname. Even eliminating those born too close to the (guessed at) publication date of these illustrations, we still have too wide a field. But then, I looked more closely at the signature. Why does the ‘l’ look so cursive? Is it perhaps that this is “BLack” as in B. Lack? Buckman lists a Barbara Dacia Lack

Barbara Dacia LACK fl. from 1940s— Artist in many media including textile design who attended Perse School in Cambridge, then the College of Art there, followed by Royal College of Art. Showed at RA, in the provinces and abroad. Continued to live in Cambridge for many years, latterly at Temple Sowerby, Penrith, Cumbria.

Wikipedia have a project called “Women in Red” where there are links to -as yet – non-existent wiki pages on women artists who are mentioned in at least 2 art biographical dictionaries. They have this entry with these cited works:

Barbara Dacia Lack or Barbara Lack, 1907–2004 – cited in

David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0 953260 95 X.
Sara Gray (2019). British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts. Dark River. ISBN 978 1 911121 63 3.

Unfortunately I can’t seem to track down the latter to borrow but assume that’s where the date of Lack’s death came from. Their artwork appears very competent and interesting and I’d love to know more.

***UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE***

Checking Findmypast – a gift from my wife for my recent birthday -I see she might have been spelled “Dacea” – one would have to check the writing on her birth certificate to check. But thanks to Andy Mabbett, I went searching. She was born near Cambridge (Chesterton) on the 10 December 1906 – and that might explain why her birth registration appears in the first quarter of 1907. In 1911 she is living at home aged 4 ( Millfield, Cambridge Road, Impington). Her father is Charles Tibbit Lack, born 1873 in Cottenham and is listed as and “Engineer consulting in Jam manufacturing” – I could always smell the Chivers Jam factory when studying at Impington Village College – and that was in the 1970s!). His wife is Florence Daisy Welch, born 1882 in Barnston in Essex. At this point they had Eric Charles Lack, born in 1906 in Chesterton, Barbara Dacea (note again the spelling – and I checked the original record which was filled in by her father, so he should know!) and interestingly they had a 16 year old Nursery Governess, Yvonne Anna Layton and a servant, 19 years old, Florence Emily King.

The Eastern Counties Times of 1 September 1932 include Barbara under “National Union of Teachers Advanced First Class” listing of names. I’m not clear on who is awarding what here, as the NUT is unlikely to award any certificates.

In 1939 we learn that Barbara and her widowed mother (Charles died on 30 September 1932, aged 59) are living in 12 Richmond Road, Cambridge and Barbara is now an “Art Teacher & Designer” and still single. Her parents appear to have had another daughter (Joyce Marian, born 1911) and another son (David J D Lack born 30 July 1923).

Barbara appears to have died in the first quarter of 2004 in the Penrith district – and double checking subscriber’s family trees it looks like she died on 28 January 2004.

Raymond Sheppard

Two pieces by Sheppard here: Pages 251 and 254 – the former a full page labelled “Raiders in the Poultry Run” and the latter “Tarka The Otter”. I’ve shared them on my Sheppard blog

John L. Baker

John L. Baker has done 4 colour pages as a series (the first at the top of this article. The three others show the Forum at Rome; a Greek Theatre and the Agora or market place in Ancient Greece. I wrote about the artist in the previous Volume article.

HARRY RUTHERFORD

Harry Rutherford (1903-1985) drew many painting ans sketches and appeared on early TV in the UK before the Second World war! Born in Denton, Manchester and famously was taught by Adolphe Valette, and was a ‘disciple’ of Sickert. He moved to London in 1932 where he taught and freelanced for Fleet Street papers.

Have I identified his signature correctly? It’s certainly Rutherford but does that say Harry? I can’t another Rutherford to fit the bill – but that’s “arguing from silence” not proof.

GEORGE HORACE DAVIS – G. H. Davis

I talked about Davis when showing you contents for Volume Six. And again there are quite a few of his works in this volume, but I want to highlight two

Here’s another incidence of Davis’ work which I suspect appeared in earlier editions of Newnes Pictorial Knowledge as he’s signed this one 1945. If the forst Atomic Bomb was dropped and the world became aware of it in August 1945, this is an early atomic article showing “eventually the forecasts (of an atomic locomotive, house and liner) are likely to become realities”.

The management guru Peter Drucker said it best: Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. And Davis’ next illustration shows this too. Obviously he is unlikely to have written the script for these images! Whoever did write it was right regarding the first satellite launch in 1957 but the only space station we got by 2000 was the International Space Station, which began its continuous human occupation on November 2, 2000. It doesn’t look quite as pretty, but it’s still there in 2025.

Page 447 Artwork by G. H. Davis, first published in the *ILN* – Artwork dated 1955

NEXT: We look at Volume EIGHT

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Six

Oct7

Page 416, artwork by Terence Cuneo [Dated March 1952 – painted for Massey-Harris Ferguson Ltd.]

Volume Six of this 10 volume set has the following contents:

VOLUME SIX: Treasures won from the earth’s crust – The romance of coal, iron and steel; Treasures won from the earth’s crust – Metals that serve us in a hundred ways; magnetism and electricity – a great discovery and its many developments; Famous inventions and how they were evolved – What master minds have done for the good of man; Services we maintain for the common good – the work they do and how it is carried out; The world and its work – The story of some great industries; The world and its work – Agriculture – producing food from the land

Most of this volume is photographs with few illustrations. But there are some interesting pieces as can be seen above. Terence Tenison Cuneo CVO OBE RGI FGRA (1 November 1907 – 3 January 1996) needs no introduction from me!

Cowell, who I mentioned in more detail in this article, seems to have been a very competent technical illustrator. Further down this article we have another technical drawing.

This is the same Ellis Silas mentioned in Volume Four but this time in colour. And for good measure here’s a later illustration in this particular volume by him.

Page 128, artwork by – I suspect by the initial – Clifford Ambler

Clifford Ambler’s work also appeared in Volume Five, but I loved this colour image of clothing through the centuries, so had to share it. The figurework is so competent and three dimensional.

With the image above (page 163) and the one below (page 255) we get more of the distinctive art by George Horace Davis, who was born in London in 1881 and died in 1963. Jeremy Briggs has written a lovely biographical article here Davis’ work also appeared in Volume Five, and here I wanted to show the two fascinating images – the first about dynamos and the second about “the electric eye”! Here’s an article on his cutaways – for which I think he is best remembered today.

There are three cutaways – which appear to be from something called “Farm Mechanisation” – the one above, a combine harvester, plus there are a pick-up baler and a modern tractor.

John BAKER (not to be confused with the American artist John Leo Baker 1927-2005) was born in 1922. His description in David Buckman’s Dictionary of artists in Britain since 1945 :

Painter, draughtsman, illustrator, writer and lecturer, born in Birmingham, where he attended the School of Art, then Slade School of Fine Art. Worked under the guidance of the prolific newspaper draughtsman Hanslip Fletcher and freelanced for various publications, also lecturing on anatomy at Sir John Cass School. During the 1970s showed at RP, portraying civic dignitaries and show business personalities, then developed towards animal painting, involved in the early days of the Society of Equestrian Artists. Baker from 1966 wrote and illustrated a series of articles in the Surrey Advertiser called ‘The Seeing Eye’, and gained a local reputation as a controversial critic on architecture. He published A Picture of Surrey in 1980. Latterly lived near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Guildford Borough collection holds his works.

He also contributed at least 18 posters for a Macmillan’s children’s school set and A Picture of Hampshire, 1986. His carriage artwork for LNER is popular showing scenes of London landmarks too. I can’t find when he died – if he has!

Lastly I was amazed to discover a piece I’d not seen before by Raymond Sheppard, which I shared on my other blog.

NEXT: VOLUME SEVEN

Visual Rants

Illustrative printed material

Monthly Archives: October 2025

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Nine

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Eight

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Seven

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Six