Thursday 18 October 2012

Mabel Lucie Attwell

 

Turquoise & Ruby by L T Meade


I had always thought that Mabel Lucie Attwell's work was very distinctive and instantly recognisable, so I did a double take when I picked up a book on the internet recently;only bought because of the rather nice art nouveau cover and discovered the binding was by Attwell.




The book was published in 1906 and Attwell is known to have started commisson  work from about 1900 so this is some of her earliest work and in a very different form from the usual dinky sweet children which she developed from about 1914 onwards. She seems to have designed other bindings for L T Meade who was a popular author at the time and I think I want to collect them all now as they are still very affordable. I love the lettering used on the binding and the art nouveau sweep of the dresses on the front cover.
I am in two minds whether to start collecting books for the prize stickers as well because some of them are so beautiful. The sticker in this book is not so attractive but was presented to a Kathleen Sykes in Milnsbridge, Yorkshire in 1907 - so many of the books I have seem to have been awarded to children in Yorkshire













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