Harry Rowntree (b.1878; d.1950)

In 1914, Harry Rowntree, a New Zealander, became president of the London Sketch Club. He was ‘destined to become one of Britain’s finest children’s illustrators’, and it ‘has been said that it was his quirky little figures that set a style that can be seen in present day comics’. Other work that Rowntree designed included illustrated postcards, published from 1903-1917, eight full-colour plates for The King of the Golden River and other Stories, 1907, and playing cards depicting birds, for Waddingtons, in 1930.

Information collated from: London Sketch Club, ‘Brief History’, http://www.londonsketchclub.com/history3.html, accessed October 4 2003; Cooper, T., ‘List of Children’s Artists Born & Died Dates & Years they Published Postcards’, http://www.deltatango.freeserve.co.uk/childrensartist.html, accessed October 4 2003; Used Book Central, ‘Author: Ruskin, John’, http://www.usedbookcentral.com/texis/ubc/searchbooks,author,Ruskin_John,jump,160.html, accessed October 4 2003; Collectors Playing Cards, ‘Playing cards. Named backs, Artist signed and Picture backs’, http://www.collectorsplayingcards.co.uk/cardsale_namedpic.htm, accessed October 4 2003