Ethel Larcombe (née Laura Ethel Larcombe, 1876–1940) was an early twentieth-century British children's book illustrator and designer.
Biography
Born and raised in Exeter, Larcombe was the daughter of John Samuel Larcombe and his wife Louisa who owned a small school in the town.[1]
She first garnered attention for her 1899 work Summer for a competition held by The Studio Magazine, and her typographic lettering was subsequently shown at the Prima Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna in 1902 in Turin.[2] She was employed on a freelance basis by Talwin Morris, Art Director at the Glasgow-based publishers Blackie & Son to design bookbindings for the firm and their London subsidiary, Gresham.[3] Many of these designs were produced in several colourways.
Larcombe's work can be seen in contemporary publications by The Studio Magazine,[4] Stone,[5] Von Larisch,[6]Walter Shaw Sparrow[7] and Salwey.[8] In the spring of 1917, American retailer Sears marketed green-bordered cotton cloth "coverettes" bearing Larcombe illustrations to customers looking to decorate nurseries and children's rooms. Prior to that she had illustrated a number of "rag books" for Dean & Son.[9] Her designs were also used for chromolithographed postcards printed by E. W. Savory Co. of Bristol and she provided an advert for Arts & Crafts furniture designers Neatby & Evans.[10]
^Cope, P. & Cope, D. (2009) 'Dean's rag books and rag dolls: the products of a famous British publisher and toymaker', River Books, p.228
^Koch, A. (1902) 'L'Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs modernes: à Turin 1902', Darmstadt: Koch, p.199, Available [1]
^See Beare, G. (1998) ‘Designers of Blackie's Glasgow-style book covers’, Imaginative Book Illustration Society newsletter, no. 8, pp.5-8, and, Gibbs, R. J. (1984) ‘Talwin Morris again: evaluation and collaboration – Part II’, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society newsletter, no. 37, pp.3-6, and, Gibbs, R. J. (2007) ‘Designs for the serial titles of Blackie’s and Mudie’s by Talwin Morris, Ethel Larcombe and C. R. Mackintosh’, Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History, vol. 12, pp.22-26