"Mixed Sweets" [with] Father Tuck's Annual

Original Louis Wain Watercolor Drawing

WAIN, Louis (1860-1939). "Mixed Sweets." [1911]. Original watercolor drawing of a kitten sitting in a bag of sweets. Signed at lower left. Image size: 9 7/8 x 7 inches; 250 x 178 mm. Matted, framed, and glazed. Framed size: 22 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches; 570 x 470 mm. [with] Father Tuck's Annual. Stories and Poems by Rosa Nouchette Carey, E. Nesbit, Norman Gale, etc., etc. Pictured by Hilda Cowham, Mabel Lucie Attwell, M. & A.L. Bowley. London-Paris-Berlin-New York-Montreal: Raphael Tuck & Sons, [n.d. 1911].

First edition of Father Tuck's Annual. Octavo. 255, 10 pp. Eight color plates, including frontispiece. Illustrated in black and white throughout.

Publisher's pictorial cloth in gilt. All edges gilt. Beveled edges. Original gift signature dated December 24, 1911 to verso of front free endpaper.

A wonderful early example of a Louis Wain original watercolor drawing, first appearing in Father Tuck's Annual
opposite page 248.

At the end of the last century, Louis Wain (1860-1939), the Edwardian cat artist who went mad, became a household name as an illustrator of cats, whom he depicted in all sorts of activities, from skating and playing cricket to driving motor cars, attending dances, and playing musical instruments. "He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves" (H.G. Wells).

"From 1883, Wain began to draw cats as they had never been drawn before, cats in humorous guises, in human situations, but always beautifully handled�[a]lthough he was sometimes forced to draw dogs before he became well-known!" (Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914).

Price: $9,500

   (To order this item, or for more information, please call 818-222-4103)