2 Albums of Original Cartoon Illustrations.

[1950-57]. 2 folio albums containing approximately 200 illustrations on 100 leaves: (a) Winsor & Newton artists' drawing book (36 x 26.5cm), between original light green paper covers, with title 'Scrapbook for 1950' on first page, original colour illustration to upper cover, plus 20 leaves of original hand coloured illustrations, some full page, many with more than one to a page, most with handwritten ink joke captions, 7 signed with the artist's monogram. (b) C. Roberson & Co. artists' sketch book with vendor's stamp of Hibbert Bros, Art Dealers, Sheffield to inside front cover, (36 x 24cm), dark grey cloth-covered card boards, black cloth to spine, with title 'This and That' on first page, with illustrations to inside front and rear covers, plus 80 leaves of original hand coloured illustrations and 2 leaves of uncoloured pencil sketches, again many full page, many with more than one to a page, most accompanied by handwritten ink joke captions, 3 signed with the artist's monogram. Some light wear to bindings but contents generally very clean with vibrant colour. The monogram appears to be that of Arnold Taylor, the foremost artist for Bamforth & Co. Although not formatted as postcards these brilliantly executed cartoons are wonderful evocations of the rude saucy seaside culture of the day, the most famous exponent of this genre being of course Donald McGill, whose work they distributed in America. Bamforth & Co. began as a photography business founded by James Bamforth in 1870 in Yorkshire, and became the most prolific publishers of this form. Arnold Taylor joined the firm in 1926 training under Douglas Tempest who had originated the house style. After serving in the Second World War he went back to civilian life as a freelance illustrator and then returned to become a full time artist for Bamforth and a director. Only four illustrators worked for Bamforth: Douglas Tempest, Arnold Taylor, Philip Taylor (no relation) who emigrated to New Zealand after the war and Brian Fitzpatrick (born 1932) who trained under Arnold Taylor. The dating on these albums (1950 to 1957), the distinctive individual style which sets them apart from his prot�g�, and the monogram in the same style as his printed signature (Taylor) on the cards clearly point towards these being the work of Arnold. After the war, distributors of the cards were subjected to numerous prosecutions under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 and vast numbers of cards were destroyed. Postcard censorship committees were set up in the major seaside resorts, and Bamforth's artists themselves were often subjected to prosection. Few if any of the illustrations in these albums would seem to have made as far as postcard production, being probably too risqu� for the age (if not by the standards of today) but would appear to be the private sketchbooks of the artist providing the vivid background to his commercial output.