BOND, Michael; BANBERY, Fred (illus.)

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Original artwork for Paddington at the Circus: "Paddington Had Been the Star Act of the Evening". Published in Paddington at the Circus, in 1973, on pages 30-31. The drawing shows Paddington, clutching an ice cream, triumphantly riding an elephant.The text reads, "Even the ringmaster had to admit that Paddington had been the star act of the evening, and at the end of the show he gave him another ice-cream cone and insisted he take part in the Grand Parade. 'It's a pity we're only here for one night,' he said sadly. 'I'd like to have you in my circus all the time'".In 1972 Michael Bond began writing a series of Paddington Bear books for younger readers, later known as the "Paddington Picture Books". These were coloured picture books requiring a different visual style from the novels, and the artist Fred Banbery (1919-1999) therefore took over the illustration of Paddington from Peggy Fortnum. Banbery had studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and published a significant quantity of work in periodicals including Atlantic, Colliers, Economist, New Yorker, Sunday Times, Times of India, and Wall Street Journal. Six volumes of the picture books were published by Collins in London, and Random House in New York between 1972 and 1978. They predate the stop motion animated television series.Provenance: The Estate of Fred Banbery; Chris Beetles, "Paddington Bear in St James's", December 2014; Private Collection.

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