Yesterday, 7th February, it was five years exactly from my first blog post! To celebrate, I have been thinking about a giveaway - then I read Anna-Maria's post sharing the winners of her 8th blogiversary giveaways, where she mentions legal issues .... so I am still thinking about whether to do one or not.
So, for now, I will share with you some paintings by a distant cousin of mine. Cicely Elmslie Shand was born in 1898, in Newcastle, Northumberland, in England. (She was my second cousin twice removed - my maternal grandmother's second cousin.) She painted designs for postcards and greeting cards during the 1930s. She had married a naval officer, Cecil Sheppard, at the age of 18. We don't know much about this period of her life - where she and her husband were based, for instance - but we do know that they did not have children. Cecil Sheppard would have been at sea for much of the time - perhaps she painted then. Like many professional women of the time (Georgette Heyer and Marjorie Allingham spring to mind), she worked under her maiden name.
I was lucky enough several years ago to buy some of her original paintings for cards, on ebay. 'Welcome', above, is dated 1938. 'Acceptance', below, is dated 1935.
A fan of her work has created a website showing all the cards she published. These designs are not shown - perhaps they were not all published, although I do have a card of Acceptance. She was also included in the lovely book Postcards from the Nursery, by Dawn Cope and Peter Cope (although unfortunately, the description of her family mixes up the generations, naming her grandfather William (my great-great-grandfather John Shand's younger brother) as her father, and her father Hinton as her uncle).
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| To Greet You With Joy, original artwork by Cicely Elmslie Shand for a greetings card, undated. |
I would like to take the opportunity of my 5th blogiversary to greet all my followers and readers with joy, and to welcome my new followers. I hope we all have lots of fun with our collections in the year to come - I enjoy sharing mine with you, and seeing and reading about yours!
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| Toys, original artwork for a greetings card by Cicely Elmslie Shand, 1934. Image from ebay seller apb113 (Peter Haddon); sadly, I was outbid on this painting. |
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te felicito por el aniversario!!!
ReplyDelete¡Bienvenido y gracias, Carmen!
DeleteWhat fabulous illustrations. I absolutely love them.
ReplyDeleteAren't they wonderful?! I was really happy to find these originals.
DeleteJoyeux cinquième anniversaire ! (Hope you can have fun the way you wish to for the occasion ; if you are not an online seller, I suppose to give away just promotes.... generosity & sense of fun ! No-one can be taxed on that, can one ?)
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup, Ysé! Oui, j'espère que tu as raison - I have not given up the idea of doing a giveaway :-)
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ReplyDeleteCongratulations with your 5 years of blogging, and the art is wonderful, very refined! I'm looking forward to follow your posts, thank you for the welcome :-). Greetings from Belgium.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nymphaea! I'm glad you like the art, and I'm very happy to have you following my blog - I hope you enjoy it. Greetings from Darwin!
ReplyDeleteHappy fifth blogiversary! I hope your blog continues to grow and flourish - it's a fine big blog with lots of admirers already :-)
ReplyDeleteand how lovely to see all those paintings - I'm sure you've shown me some of Cicely Elmslie Shand's work before, but I don't remember them. so delicate and beautiful, and such an individual style
Thank you :-) I think I have shown you some of the postcards, but I don't know if I showed you the paintings. They are beautifully delicate, aren't they? Some day, perhaps, I'll get them framed.
Deletelove it!
ReplyDeleteHi Neomi, thanks for visiting! I'm happy you like it :-)
DeleteHello Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteHappy 5th anniversary. Thank you for sharing the lovely artwork of your cousin.
Big hug,
Giac
Hi Giac, Thank you! I'm glad you like this artwork - so delicate, and at the same time so bright and cheerful!
DeleteRebecca, your wonderful blog was the first dollhouse blog I discovered in the summer of 2009....I remember how delighted I was to find a kindred spirit who loved little houses. Your blog has been a wondrous 5 years filled with information and lovely houses and furniture. Thank you for sharing so much knowledge with your readers....I wish you many more years of sharing!
ReplyDeleteYour cousin's art work is delicately enchanting. You have shared two fascinating relatives with us....why do I feel like there are more to come! Cheers!
Goodness, Florine, was mine really the first you discovered? I'm not sure that I can remember now which I discovered first! Thank you for your kind comments - I hope to share more this year than I have managed over the last couple of years.
DeleteEnchanting describes C E Shand's work perfectly! And yes, I have many fascinating relatives, some more and some less appropriate to share on a dolls house blog! but I am sure that I will indeed share more :-)
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteWould you be able to tell me the dimensions of your originals? I work at a gallery in New Zealand and we have one of C E Shand's illustrations which says it is original, but I wonder whether it might be a printed postcard as it is quite small. I just found this post on you blog and thought I'd ask as there's not much information out there about her.
Thank you,
Jessica
Hi Jessica, Thanks for your query. The originals I have measure from about 19cm - 26 cm in width, and 26cm - 31 cm in height. On the originals, the textures of the paint and pencil are clearly visible, there is no mistaking them for printed works (although the 'Welcome' one is much cleaner than the others - perhaps printed and then coloured with paint??? All the postcards I've seen have the usual postcard features printed on the back (dividing line, Address this side, or whatever)..C E Shand's designs also appeared as greeting cards (like the party Acceptance card above, which I have as an original and as a greeting card - the original much bigger than the card), so if yours is small, and doesn't have printing on the back, perhaps it's the front of a greeting card? But then, I only have a few originals, and she may have varied her practice - I'd go more on whether there is visible paint, etc, or if it all looks printed. Her postcards and greeting cards also have value, of course ....
DeleteWhat a lovely legacy and story. I love her work. I'm trying to find the value of her originals. I can only find postcards, but no originals. Any idea of their worth? I'm about to purchase two and I don't want to overpay for them.
ReplyDeleteHi Lorraine, Thanks for your comment. The originals I purchased, which are shown in this post, cost US$149, $169 and $339. I don't remember how much the one I was outbid on went for, or how much I had bid, but its starting price was probably around US$150-170. That was 8 years ago - what that would mean in terms of prices I'm not sure. I think they are fairly rare, so I was happy to pay those prices. I would love to know about the originals you are about to purchase - will you be sharing them online somewhere?
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