ORIGINAL ART: OLD KING COLE FROM MOTHER GOOSE -

DENSLOW, W.W.. DENSLOW,W.W. ORIGINAL ART: OLD KING COLE FROM MOTHER GOOSE. Offered here is a large and wonderful finished pen and ink drawing for Ye Old Time Nursery Rhymes by Mother Goose. Although the book with this title was actually published in 1939 by Baldwin & Strachan in Buffalo when the art was re-discovered (after Denslow's death), the art itself was most likely executed circa 1910 when Denslow was actively illustrating advertising booklets. In their bibliography of Denslow, Greene and Hearn write about this art as follows: "The drawings were discovered in 1939 in the scrapbook of one William W. Reed. Since a man named Horace Reed was connected with Niagra Lithograph Company, it is likely that Denslow drew the pictures for one of his advertising pamphlets. The pictures first appeared in Youth Magazine, a hand-out to patrons of Dodd's Dairy in Buffalo. In issue eleven, this pamphlet was announced as available from Dodd's milkmen for ten cents." Executed on Strathmore drawing board measuring 19 1/2" wide x 14 1/2" high, the image nearly fills the entire space. Although this particular piece is not signed, many of the other pieces we have available are. This is a rare opportunity to own very fine published work by Denslow.