During the week I popped in some charity shops and spotted this on the shelf for £1.50 ...........and I wasn't even looking for it.
Came home and looked on Amazon under "Flower Fairy Treasury" and there were loads available for 1p plus the £2.80 postage of course. If I'd have found these first time I would have thought £2.81 was OK but because they didn't pop up first time I saved the grand total of £1.31p................................ of course if I hadn't got into my head that I could use more pictures from the book on the blog through the year I would have saved £1.50!............. Writing this blog is damaging to the purse!
Thought I would find out more about Cicely Mary Barker. She was born in 1895 and as a frail child was taught at home and using correspondence courses in Art and Drawing taught herself to draw and paint and then went to the Croyden School of Art. She said her influences were Kate Greenaway and the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1911 she sold four drawings which were turned into postcards and then in 1923 Flower Fairies of the Spring was published.
In 1924, with her parents and sister, the family moved house and Cecily had a studio built in the garden and her sister conducted a kindergarten in a room at the back of the house. The family lived frugally and were devout Christians.
In an interview in 1958, Barker said, "My sister ran a kindergarten and I used to borrow her students for models." She also painted the children of relatives. The plants were painted from life, and if a specimen was not readily at hand, Kew Gardens staff would provide her the specimens she needed. Cecily designed and made the Flower Fairy costumes, and based each on the flowers and leaves of the particular plant to be illustrated. She used books on English costumes for reference too.The costumes were kept in a trunk in her studio along with wings made of twigs and gauze. Each was broken down after an illustration was completed and the parts recycled for other costumes.
Flower Fairies of the Summer was published in 1925 and Of the Autumn in 1926. Flower Fairies of the Seasons was published in 1930 and The Flower Fairy Alphabet in 1934. Flower Fairies of the winter wasn't published until 1985, twelve years after she died in 1973. There are also other Flower Fairy books listed.....Of The Wayside, Of the Trees and Of the Garden.
She also did several religious themed books and pictures and designed a stained glass window for her church.
There are 120 different Fairies in The Treasury but it doesn't include some of the flowers and trees that are in my smaller books and according to a dedicated website there were 170 illustrations altogether.
Son and DIL rented a home called Thyme Cottage for a few years and there was a print of "The Wild Thyme Fairy" in the porch when they moved in. He looked on line and said The Wild Thyme Fairy only appeared in the original "Summer Flower Fairy " book and wasn't in many of the newer editions and isn't in any of my books either. There are Complete Flower Fairy books available too but reviews say that recent editions have taken the Fairies out of their surroundings rather than the complete picture originally painted, so I won't be wanting one of those.
These are the little books I had before finding the new one, most have been around since the children were small
Who knew that looking for a snowdrop fairy picture would lead down the path to finding out so much about an author and her illustrations.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
It's funny how we find things we want, when we're not actively looking for them. That's how we've acquired a lot of our furniture and the blue & white china I collect.
ReplyDeleteI love the Flower Fairies, a girl is never too old to love fairies.
ReplyDeleteI have all these books and love them! But I was amazed to read in this post that she actually made the costumes for them and then painted them...I believe I read somewhere that N.C. Wyeth had costumes made for his models when illustrating a book. She was a very talented woman.
ReplyDeleteA really interesting voyage of discovery. She was obviously very talented a bit like Beatrix Potter.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you just happened to find that book - and at such a good price too! I have always loved the Flower Fairies and I really enjoyed this information you have shared about them. Did you know there is even a line of fabric featuring Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies?
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your research, it's very impressive that she made all the costumes. Somehow that adds a new depth to the books.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to look to see if I have the Thyme Fairy.
I assume you found the Snowdrop Fairy in the new book you purchased.
Finding things one is not looking for is rather like coming across a new word and then it pops up somewhere else, often within 24 hours!
Sue
Seeing these fairies on the book covers makes me think that I have used fabric in the past with these same fairies on it.
ReplyDeleteI used to sell books on Amazon but have given up, it wasn't worth the trouble unless you had rare books.
Briony
x
I really interesting post. I love the fairys my favorite is the Sweet Pea one, I think because my dad was a Sweet Pea grower and won medals for them. I also framed a cross stitched large picture which I have on my wall. I love the little books.
ReplyDeleteHazel c uk
I do wish I still have my collection but I guess them must have been cleared out decades ago. A shame because they are very attractive books.
ReplyDeletexx
I wonder what it was about Edwardian England that generated such an interest in the idea of fairies. The Cottingley Fairies and J M Barrie’s Tinkerbell immediately come to mind.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many talented artists we are overlooking these days as Art becomes less and less of an attractive subject to take at school. At one time in Cicely's generation young girls especially were encouraged to paint and draw and this often led on to a career.
ReplyDeleteCicely was definitely very talented and I like the fact she used models and made her own costumes for her pictures - you can tell from the drawings that they were not just done from imagination.
Lovely post Sue. I have always loved the flower fairies but sadly I don't have my childhood set any longer. I do have have some of the later ones and my son bought me a lovely book called ' Cicely Mary Barker and her Art'
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely day.
I used to collect postcards and not only of places I'd visited, but of anything that appealed to me. Majority of them have been decluttered now, but I still have four postcards of Fairies painted in the same way as you have shown. There is Fairies of the Garden, Fairies of the Hedgerow, Fairies of the Meadow and Fairies of the Woods. Each of them depicts the different flowers, berries, leaves etc. They were done by M. Sherborne. Maybe I should look up this name and see what else I uncover.
ReplyDeleteI love the flower fairies, I bought some CD's for card making with them on the ones I have are Almond Blossom, Buttercup, Lavender, Wild Cherry, Rose and Zinnia. I will probably at a later date also get the other CD with the Christmas Tree and Holly, they are made by Crafters Companion. Helen S.
ReplyDeleteThey look like such pretty little books. I've seen the illustrations around before. There are a series of them in cross stitch. I've never done one but there are several separate patterns and they have appeared in the mags. Interesting post as usual!
ReplyDeleteI have seen one or two of these over the years Sue but knew absolutely nothing about their author, so it was lovely to read an account of her life.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books as a child. I still have it!! Along with Winnie the Pooh and Millie Molly Mandy !!
ReplyDeleteIt always a delight to learn something new.
ReplyDeleteThe Snowdrop fairy is my favourite picture. I had the Flower Fairy book when I was little and loved looking through it.
ReplyDeletexx
I used to read these books to my girls (I couldn't bear to part with them, so the books are still here). I have the ceramic Rose Mallow Flower Fairy in my bedroom too, which I bought for Gabby when she was 7 or 8.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the potted biography about Cicily Mary Barker - I didn't know anything about her, so this was a delight.
She lived out her final years in Storrington which is quite near to me. Her ashes were scattered in the village.
ReplyDeleteArilx
I've always loved the Flower Fairy illustrations, but knew nothing about the author/artist.
ReplyDeleteYes, blogging can be hard on the purse sometimes ;-)