BOND, Michael; BANBERY, Fred (illus.)

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Original artwork for Paddington at the Circus: "Paddington Gave the Man a Hard Stare as he Stepped Out of the Bucket". Published in Paddington at the Circus, in 1973, on pages 24-25. The drawing shows Paddington, with one foot lodged in a bucket, staring at a man applauding in the audience.The text reads, "The cheers as Paddington landed in the ring made the whole tent shake. 'Best act I've seen in years!' shouted a man near the Browns. 'More! More!' Paddington gave the man a hard stare as he stepped out of the bucket. He'd had enough of being a trapeze artist for one night".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.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.