Greenaway, Kate (ill.) | Five original watercolors for Little Ann, with a presentation copy

Greenaway, Kate (ill.)

Five original watercolors for Little Ann and Other Poems, ca. 1880s

Five original watercolors (from 70 x 93 mm to 162 x 250 mm). Each initialed; faintly toned, edges lightly browned and finger soiled, rubbed at corners beyond the matted frame, closed tear in the margin of one drawing, labeled in pencil on verso. All hinged to boards and neatly matted; a few stray stains to matting not affecting drawings, one mat split at joint. [with:]

Greenaway, Kate (ill.) — Jane and Ann Taylor

Little Ann and Other Poems. London: George Routledge and Sons, [n.d., 1882]

8vo (230 x 150 mm). Inscribed on front free endpaper, numerous in-text and full-page illustrations, all in color; some stains and smudges throughout, offsetting of illustrations, one small closed tear. Quarter green cloth over colored pictorial paper-covered boards, yellow endpapers, edges stained blue; covers worn, rubbed and chipped at extremities, upper hinge weak but holding. Housed together in a blue morocco-backed cloth slip case with two folding chemises.

Five charming original watercolors for Little Ann, along with a first edition, first state presentation copy of the work from Greenaway to Agnes Haswell Shaw, wife of the famed British architect Richard Norman Shaw: "Mrs. Norman Shaw from Kate Greenaway November, 1883."

The five illustrations resemble the versions printed on pages 12, 38, 39, 52, and 54 in the final work. Greenaway indeed maintained a personal relationship with the Shaws—in 1885, Richard Norman Shaw designed her home and studio in Frognal, Hampstead. She moved into the house with her parents and brother in February 1885, and she continued to live at the residence until her death. Greenaway, it appears, did not love the home, and nor did her friends. In a letter that March, she recalled that a friend had recently declared, "What a frightful falling off from the old one." She continued, adding her own opinion, "Isn't that sad?—but I fear true" (Spielmann p. 142–144).

REFERENCES

Schuster & Engen 109a; Spielmann, Kate Greenaway, 1905

PROVENANCE

Agnes Haswell Shaw (presentation inscription to front free endpaper, dated November 1883) — Parke-Bernet, 23–24 November 1943, lot 250 — A. Light (ownership inscription to front free endpaper verso, dated '62)