BRIGGS, Raymond (1934-2022)
Lot 96

BRIGGS, Raymond (1934-2022)

Original artwork for The Mother Goose Treasury, [c.1966].

Closed12 July 2023

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GBP 1,800–2,500

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BRIGGS, Raymond (1934-2022)
Original artwork for The Mother Goose Treasury, [c.1966].
Two double-page spreads, 285 x 440mm each. Gouache, pen, pencil and correcting fluid on card, numbered ‘40’ and ‘spread no 63’ in felt-tip pen on versos.

Two spreads for The Mother Goose Treasury, the work that won Briggs his first Kate Greenaway Medal: a fascinating glimpse of the early work produced by of one of Britain’s most important 20th-century children’s book illustrators.

The first is the spread for pp.70-71, featuring the rhyme ‘Fire! Fire! Burn Stick!’; editor's note in blue pen: ‘Shorter rope 1/8”’. The second is the spread for pp.102-3, featuring the rhymes ‘What’s the news?’ (left-hand page) and ‘The Sky’ and ‘Two Robins’ (right-hand page); page 102 is a preliminary draft, revised for the published edition, with elements of the scene added in pencil.

The first three collections of rhymes illustrated by Raymond Briggs – including Ring-a-ring o' Roses (1962) and Fee Fi Fo Fum (1964) – attracted the attention of an American editor, Alice Torrey, who suggested a co-edition of 'the biggest nursery rhyme book ever' (see N. Jones, Raymond Briggs: The Illustrators Series, 2020, pp. 28-29). This became The Mother Goose Treasury, published in the U.K. by Hamish Hamilton, an exuberant, revolutionary work produced by Briggs free from the oversight of a book designer and decorated as he saw fit. A glorious hotchpotch of styles, with influences ranging from Chagall to collage artwork, the book won Briggs the first of his Greenaway Medals in 1966 – he went on to win another, in 1973, for Father Christmas.