Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Ten

VOLUME TEN: This is the reference volume for the set, containing the A-Z Factual Index and “Our world today”.

This volume has predominantly three columns with a dictionary approach. The above opening page changes things slightly as it has called this “Children’s Treasury of General Knowledge”

Who is “H. K.”?

The first artist’s work I wish to highlight is well disguised.

Each section begins with an illustration of that letter. So here we see A, C and J. So who is the artist? Hidden in the images are the initials “HK”. Could this be Horace Knowles, (mentioned here) but he usually signs his work in full. I also felt some of this artwork was a bit ‘naive’, just look at the animal top-left on the letter J page, which I guess is a jackal. . Knowles was, I felt more competent than this. Just look at his own “Countryside Treasures” as an example. The work is stylised but competent. So who is HK?

GEORGE HORACE DAVIS (1884-1963)

GHD, G. H. Davis etc. has been mentioned when discussing Volume Six, so I’ll leave this here as I liked the clarity of the explanation and also his lovely signature with the ‘D’ enclosing his surname.

I also loved this cutaway of a London street! Note that it’s dated 1949 which makes one wonder about the claim “Specially drawn for this work” as it’s surely a reprint from an earlier edition!

ANTHONY WOOD (1925 – 2022)

I’m afraid I had NOTHING on Anthony Wood in any of my usual sources. Looking at the above and the image below, we can see he may have been a technical artist of some sort, and I nearly drew a blank! But then I thought to search for Anthony Wood + Heraldry and that came up trumps. His Wikipedia page tells me he was “a professional calligrapher, illuminator and heraldic artist”

H. M. BROCK (Henry Matthew Brock) (1875-1960)

I can’t add anything to HM’s biography and have already said he is famous enough not to need my rants but researchers of his work might like to know his work appears in this volume.

ERNEST ARIS (1882-1963)

Like Brock above, Aris needs no introduction. His work appears in many of this set of 10 books and the two above appealed to me. What a versatile artist!

CYRIL COWELL (1888-1967)

I chose these two pieces by Cyril Cowell as 1) it allows me to say he does two other maps in this volume – South Africa, Canada, and the above NZ and 2) his work appears in Volumes 5, 6, 8 and here Volume 10, amongst others. To read more about him follow the link.

CONCLUSION

As I said in the first posting on this set of encyclopedia, there are two accompanying volumes – an atlas and a dictionary which I don’t own. So here’s where I finish this series. Just as, with a lot of what I do on this blog, I’ve only shown what interests me – either the art itself, or the hunt for information. If you’ve read this far and – for example – are tracking down all instances of one these artist’s works, this is a good set to check…and there are multiple editions unfortunately! I tripped over an early set (with Enid Blyton’s name) and found no Raymond Sheppard artwork – my main reason for buying this 10 volume set – but did see some familiar artwork .

Thanks for all the comments, and do let me know if you discover who some of these artists are whom I’ve not been able to pin down

Norman

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

Visual Rants

Illustrative printed material

Tag Archives: Ernest Aris

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Ten

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Eight

Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: Volume Seven