Beschreibung:

all in watercolour, mainly on rectos of postcards, a few on paper, approx. 14 x 9cm or reverse and slightly smaller, all text written backwards for purposes of mirror-image projection via magic lantern, in envelope annotated by Eric Gill's daughter Petra Tegetmeier ('This is a collection of pictures shown on our magic lantern at Ditchling, 1913, Petra Tegetmeier'), artists comprising: 1) Eric Gill 5 drawings, all signed 'E. G.', in pencil on verso: The Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; 2 decorative lettering specimens ('Watch this space!' and 'A happy new year to you'); 3 cartoons of young girls (on 2 cards), presumably Gill's daughters, with punning captions ('I hope your tooth is Bettyer'; 'I hope you feel Petraicularly nice'; 'I hope you are enJoan yourself'); 2) Elizabeth ('Betty') Gill, daughter of Eric Gill 8 drawings, all annotated 'Elizabeth' in pencil on verso: Salome with the head of John the Baptist (pencil annotation recto: 'Elizabeth Gill, Gruyères, Suisse, Feb. 1922'; The Annunciation (2 examples, one with lettering by Eric Gill 'Ecce ancilla D[omi])ni', annotated in pencil on verso 'Elizabeth & E. G.'); Pieta; The Three Marys at the Tomb of Jesus (2 examples, one with pencilled title in a juvenile hand on verso); Our Lady of Mercy (depicting a floating icon above worshippers on grass, with lengthy message from a young Elizabeth to her father on verso: 'Dear Daddy. I hope yor [sic] are quite well I am so sorry that I have not written to you before ... we went to Haywards-Heath for vespers on sunday I have made a lot of Rosary's and sent them to to various places and miss Blackmoore wants me to make her a rosary I am afrade there is no more room so goodbye'); A craftsman chiselling a block of stone, captioned 'What is the time Sam'; 3) Petra and Joan Gill, daughters of Eric Gill one drawing each (The Empty Tomb, addressed verso in juvenile hand 'To Dear Daddy with love from Petra'; child on horseback); 4) Joseph Cribb (1892-1967), Eric Gill's first apprentice, 2 drawings, captioned 'The Wild West' and 'The Midnight Battle'; 5) H. D. C. Pepler (1878-1951), a country church, inscribed on verso 'To Mr & Mrs Gill, Wishing you a happy Christmas, H. D. C. P., 24.XII.15'; and 5 other items: autograph letter signed from Eric Gill to Elizabeth Gill, 1916, in pencil, on verso of printed military-theme caricature postcard; birthday postcard to Eric Gill from his sister-in-law; postcard to Eric Gill's wife with postage-stamp collage recto; and 2 filing-cards annotated 'M'scope (Comics)' and 'M'scope, "portraits"', possibly by Eric Gill (1 folder) Note: Eric Gill's enthusiasm for using a magic lantern (also known as an epidiascope or mirrorscope) to entertain his young family is mentioned in Fiona MacCarthy's biography of Gill, where it is linked to the character of Gill's own upbringing: 'Eric Gill’s was a Victorian childhood in its mixture of terror and sentimentality. His own characteristic combination of the serious and frolicsome, noted by David Jones … was very much part of his Victorian inheritance. He shared his father’s fascination for the mechanical world as well as the spiritual. They both loved a contraption: a telescope; a microscope; the mirrorscope which so delighted Gill’s own children’ (p. 20). Provenance: 1) G. F. Sims, bookseller (with his catalogue descriptions). 2) Property of an English collector.