Designer Desire: Sybil Andrews

Sybil Andrews was a talented and successful 20th century British artist best known for her colourful abstract linocut works.

Andrews (1898-1992) was a member of the Grosvenor School along with artists we’ve featured before – her long-time mentor and collaborator, Cyril Power and their tutor, Claude Flight.

During her career, she created at least 76 linocuts. Like many artists during the 1930s period, she was captivated by movement, sport, speed and the machine age and this shone through in her work. Like many of her Grosvenor School contemporaries, she was heavily influenced by the earlier UK Vorticism movement.

MoMa, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Glenbow Museum, Calgary and Moyse’s Hall Museum (in her home town of Bury St Edmunds) hold examples of her work in their permanent collections.

Although originals and vintage limited edition prints of her work are expensive, you can buy new prints and cards from The Blank Card Company.

Published in 2015, the book, Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue by Hana Leaper is available from Abe Books.

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Additional image credits:
Artnet | The Blank Card Company

Designer Desire: Cassandre

Mentor to last week’s Designer Desire focus, Raymond Savignac, Cassandre was an international graphic design and advertising heavyweight of the 20th century.

Cassandre – real name Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron – is best known for his playful Dubo Dubon Dubonnet artworks and his travel posters. They really give the feel of the time; the 1930s were all about modernism and the machine age – speed, sleekness and adventure. It was an epoch when international travel was becoming accessible to the masses.

He was responsible for creating the famous Yves St Laurent logo and scarf and playing card designs for Hermès. He also produced a number of typefaces including Acier Noir, Bifur, Greyhound and Peignot.

His works are in the permanent collections of MOMA and the V&A. His original posters can fetch as much as £30,000. However, a selection of prints are available from less than £10.00.

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Additional image credits:

Christies

Designer Desire: Brynhild Parker

Margaret Brynhild Parker (1907–1987) was a painter and illustrator who, after graduating from the Slade School of Art in 1928, became a member of the East London Group.

I especially love her works of interiors – it’s almost as if you’re having an unseen snoop around someone’s home.

During WW2, when painting commissions were drying up, Parker turned her hand to illustrating children’s books with authors such as Alwyn Richards and Ernest Noble.

Her works can be found in the permanent collections of MOMA, the V&A and Manchester Art Gallery amongst others.

The current record auction price for one of her works is $10,380 USD for a painting sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2008.

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Brynhild Parker, a young artist whose work has often been shown in London, makes a sketch of Freda Walker in her flat…

Photograph by Bill Brandt for Picture Post, January 1939

Cooking with gas!

Well, this is a first for us in the purchases department – a vintage gas cooker!

It was recently taken out of someone’s home who’d had it from new – and it was still being used. All the more remarkable as this model dates from the late 1930s! It was destined to be weighed in for scrap unless we saved it – and we just couldn’t let that be its fate.

It’s such a fabulous item. We love the design – solid and functional. It has oven, grill and hob. The top collapses down neatly when not in use to provide an additional work surface if required. And there’s a fold out plate warmer too. The entire body is covered in a warm, cream-coloured enamel. It’s very cute!

The condition is amazing considering its age and usage – it even has the original instruction card!

We found some original advertisements for this model New World gas cooker online. This example could easily go into some kind of living museum. However, as we said, it was still being used until recently, so could go straight back into a domestic setting.

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It’s been lovingly cared for, for 80 years – there’s no reason why it can’t have a few more!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: 1930s

Designer Desire: Sybil Andrews

Designer Desire: Cassandre

Designer Desire: Brynhild Parker

Cooking with gas!