More Perfect Little Works of Art: Fred Taylor and J. Francis Smith. Plus spring sunshine at Barrington Court

I don’t claim to have any knowledge of these ‘little works of art’ I am simply sharing them for your enjoyment. I shared the first part of the collection and the little I know about them in this previous post. 

Fred Taylor. R.I 

I've struggled to enlarge the images because the originals are so small, but I hope these slightly larger pictures will enable you to see some of the details. Please leave a comment if you recognise any of the places or know anything about Photochromes. Actually, please leave a comment even if you don’t, I love hearing from you. 

I'm sure this is Dunster. Terry and went there in May 2013, and I blogged about it here 

The same picture in colour (image found on Pinterest)  

What about these - any ideas?  Could the one at bottom right be St. Paul's?

Fred Taylor (1875 - 1963)

Educated at Academie Julian, Paris and Goldsmiths College, London.
One of Britain’s foremost poster artists 1908 - 1940s. Best known

for his posters of buildings and architecture. His main clients included
the London Underground and the Empire Marketing Board.
Sources;
The London Transport Museum

Sanders of Oxford

Livingston, A. & I., Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers, 1992, p.187

Replies from readers of my blog (thank you all so much). 

Nicki-ann suggested D5206 (on the first sheet) lookes like Chester and having checked online she is absolutely right. According to Wikipedia, the building is Lockwood’s black-and-white building at Chester Cross.

Willie agrees the building on the bottom right of the second sheet is St Paul's Cathedral.

Sue Imgrund is sure image 5229 (top left – second sheet) is Great Court, Trinity College Cambridge Sue included a link to a postcard published by the Photochrom Co of Royal Tunbridge Wells  (the very same company as on a business card found in this album). I assume the postcard was produced from this very image – which adds weight to the fact that this could be a salesman’s sample book.

Darlene Foster and Susan Donaldson agree no 5204 is York Minster, although Darlene thinks it could be Monk Bar in the foreground while Susan is sure it is Bootham Bar.  Sue is sure she knows where more of these places are. I just need a little time to check, and then I will share the information with you. (Thanks Sue)

Further thanks are due to Susan Donaldson for the following information:  D. 5205 is Edinburgh, with the castle in the background and the Scott Monument in the foreground. I found this fairly similar image (c1915) on Pinterest.

Sue also came up trumps with D 5230 (top row, second sheet) which she correctly identified as the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. I’m so grateful to everyone who helped out with this, thank you.  

Please don’t forget to leave a comment if you know where any of these places are, I would dearly love to find them all.

J. Francis Smith:

Several of these look like old English Country Inns, but it doesn’t help me place them. Are you familiar with any of them?

Update: While researching this post, I assumed the above images were by the Canadian artist John Francis Smith (1868 - 1941). However, after publishing the post I was contacted by a lady by the name of Patricia Hovenden. Patricia tells me there were two J. Francis Smiths working at about the same time.  Patricia is the granddaughter of the English J. Francis Smith and has colour versions of a number of these drawings.

In accordance with the information received from Patricia, I can safely assume all the above works are by the English J. Francis Smith. He was a Liverpudlian who worked for the Liverpool echo he also designed cards as a side line. He enjoyed painting and sketching Cotswold villages and inns. Patricia didn’t know her grandfather, but she tells me he died around 1957.

The images so far identified are:

D.5214 Groombridge, Kent

D.5255 The Black Bear Inn, Tewkesbury

D. 5254 (Possibly) The Crown, Evesham

Second sheet, bottom row - without number Matlock Dale, High Tor.

I am very grateful to everyone who gets in touch and will always try to correct any errors I might make. I really want to find out as much as I can about these little works of art, and I’m thrilled to be finding so many answers. 

   

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The weather has been glorious of late tempting us to leave the chores and enjoy some sunshine. On one such sunny day, we headed to Barrington Court, a National Trust property less than an hour from where we live. I’ve written about Barrington Court previously so I won’t bore you with all the details (like the delicious cheese scones for elevenses or the equally delicious lunch), but I would like to share some of my photographs. If you are interested in my previous posts, you will find them here: Autumn at Barrington Court and here: Tiptoe through the Tulips.  If you would like further details about Barrington Court, please visit the National Trust website here.

The formal gardens are stunning, but it was lovely to see wild bluebells dotted about the place. 

I like the dreamy quality of this photograph. The unknown (to me) family on the bridge drew my eye, and I couldn't resist snapping a quick shot.

It was a surprise to see roses blooming in April.  We have lots of tiny buds on ours but no actual flowers yet.

A sunny part of the gardens enclosed by tall brick walls, I wish I could share the delicious aroma of the wallflowers.  I don’t know the couple in the photograph they just happened to wander through as I took it.

As we sat on a bench enjoying the sunshine, this little chap came to say hello. He is obviously very used to visitors as he was quite unperturbed when we started taking his photo. 

Leaving Terry to enjoy the sun I headed off to one of my favourite places on the estate. National Trust properties with second-hand bookshops are the best! This one is usually full of customers but for once I had it all to myself.

Striding back, book in hand happy as can be! (Photo by Terry Fisher)

What did I buy? The Woodland Gospels by Jeremy Lloyd with illustrations by Graham Percy. I sold lots of copies of this when I was trading, so it's nice to finally have one of my own.

Everywhere you turn there is another lovely vista and more beautiful flowers.

We noticed this glorious Clematis just as we were about to leave. I'm delighted with how sharp my photograph is. Terry is forever trying to show me how to take better pictures, but I’m never happy to stand still for very long. He waits until the light is just right or a butterfly settles on a flower, whereas I want to keep moving. We’ve been married for 47 years in June, so we are quite used to each other's foibles, it simply means I walk twice as far as Terry as I double back on myself to see if he is ready to move on. If you follow this link, you will be taken to Terry’s blog where you can see what a difference a little extra patience makes.