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[A set of original illustrations by Neave Parker for 'Bombus, the Bumble-Bee'.]

[A set of original illustrations by Neave Parker for 'Bombus, the Bumble-Bee'.]

[Some larger images signed 'Neave Parker'; one dated 1939 by the artist. All are stamped '13 August 1939' to verso.]
Ten pen & ink drawings on scraperboard, cut to various sizes: six c.325 x 205mm, 12¾ x 8"; the rest 190 x 145mm (7½ x 5¾"), or smaller. Various pen and pencil annotations to margins and versos; all are captioned with their intended positions in the text, i.e. 'chap 3 page 31'. Larger images also with relevant quotation, and marked 'full page'. The group includes a 'frontispiece', 'contents page', and 'tailpiece'. Pinholes to margins; extremities generally a little bumped and creased. Altogether a fine set.
The book by Ray Palmer, one of the 'Animals All' series of children's books, was first published in London by T. Nelson & Sons in 1940. A unique archive of charming images of insect and other animal and plant life that features a hedgehog, shrew, field mouse and a swallow catching bees on the wing. W. Neave Parker (1910 - 1961) worked as a surveyor for a short while before going on to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, working in the Photographic Unit. After making the acquaintance of Maurice Burton, a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum and also honorary science editor at the Illustrated London News, he began to produce animal illustrations. The first of his drawings of prehistoric animals appeared in the Illustrated London News on 30 September 1950. He became an accomplished scientific illustrator and the National History Museum commissioned him to do a series of picture postcards; the museum retains the 19 original drawings for this series. Parker also illustrated numerous children's books. His drawings are held in the Ulster Museum and he was the subject of an exhibition there entitled, ' The Prehistoric World of Neave Parker' in 1993.
See BL W.P.5331/2.
[Ref: 25331]  £450.00


 

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