Collecting, and a case of mistaken identity

I have a story to tell, one of mistaken identity. Right, so, to recap. My love of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books came about originally through a copy of the book owed by my grandfather originally. It was one of the first ‘real’ books I read, and I was always fascinated by the illustrations. I did think that these were the Tenniel illustrations.

Recently I’ve been collecting just a few editions of Alice illustrated by my favourite Alice illustrators. Okay. Well, I had a really good morning this morning. I completed no fewer than 2 more illustrations for Alice’s Adventures at the Poles. This puts me at 21 illustrations for the first five chapters and means I am ahead of the game.

This was why I decided o reward myself with an ebay search. I was looking on ebay this morning and there it was, that very same edition I was looking for. Only, it turns out that it wasn’t published by the Daily Express, but by Odhams. Looking at the photographs accompanying the listings it’s definitely the same. The price was right and I’ve bought it.

The actual book itself that interested me so as a kid, well, that’s in Hillingdon with my younger brother. After I moved out to University I never really came back to live in Nan’s house, and Rob (my brother) sort of inherited it by right of possession, being the last to move out. As I recall he covered the covers in transparent sticky black plastic to preserve it. His heart was in the right place but I wish he hadn’t done it.

Knowing it was published by Odhams has enabled me to zero in on it. Because, well, I’ve had this nagging doubt in my mind that the illustrations within it were actually the Tenniel originals. You see, I’ve always loved Tenniel’s illustrations but I seem to recall back in the dim and distant past realising that the illustrations in this book are not quite the same. Well, it turns out I was right. Looking at photographs with this listing and other listings for the same edition, it says that the illustrations are by Edgar Thurstan. Edgar Thurstan? As in E.B. Thurstan? Blimey!

If you’ve ever looked on my Alice Illustrations page, you may have noticed that I have copied one E.B. Thurstan illustration showing Alice peering up at Humpty Dumpty. This is what I said at the time:-

“I came upon the original of this copy, which is by an artist called E.B.Thurstan. It was published in 1930. Frustratingly I have been able to discover nothing about the artist. But I love the original of this. Yes, I think it owes maybe a debt to the Tenniel Humpty Dumpty, but I think Humpty himself is stunning, and our viewpoint, looking down onto his wall, is brilliant.”

Well, yes, Looking at photographs of Thurstan’s illustrations I’m guessing that his obvious debt to Tenniel is why he never seems to be featured among the ranks of the top Alice illustrators. Because his Humpty is actually one of his more original illustrations. In others he seems to have taken Tenniel’s characters, maybe altered one or two details, and changed the positions or perspective a little, but by and large used Tenniel’s established conventions. It’s as if the editors have said – well, we don’t want to use the actual Tenniel sketches, but see how close you can get without actually copying line for line. The result is almost a kind of ‘I can’t believe it’s not Tenniel.’ There’s no doubt in my mind that Edgar Thurstan was definitely a talented illustrator. An original one, though?

Well, I only ordered the book this morning, so I haven’t received it yet. I’ll say more when I do.