Quote: Decided to scan an old children's railway book this evening, in the hope that others may enjoy seeing the amazing illustrations. I don't know if youth is wasted on the young, but cracking illustrations like these (Which unfortunately have not scanned too well) most certainly WERE wasted on the young!
There is no date on the book. Can anyone date it from the subjects?
Brian.
The book has now been definitively dated to 1947
Mike
The reason why the scans have not come out too well is because the original was printed using what's called a moir=E9-patterned background.
In your scanners software under filters should be something like "descreen printed original" or "moir=E9-pattern removal" Descreening recognises that the image is made of "dots" and performs a filtering routine that eliminates the dots.
Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd. were well recognised in the field of quality publishing, with their fine range of scrap books, puzzles, greeting cards, calendars and books. In the early 1900's Raphael Tuck had 15,000 postcards and over 4,000 designs of Christmas cards in print but sadly in late December 1940 during one of the worst air raids of the 2nd World War, it's head office was destroyed together with all the records of its postcards and many originals.
Every reigning UK monarch up to but not including Queen Elizabeth II honoured the company at least once with a "Royal Warrant of Appointment", and that's why their products are best dated by the reigning monarch they mention on most of their printing.
William McDowell was a prolific postcard artist & illustrator. He was born and raised in Barrow-in-Furness and served an apprenticeship at Vickers Shipyard and finally entered the drawing office. After World War I, he left Vickers to become a marine artist, specialising in commercial work for the large shipping companies.
McDowell is an artist whose work is now well recognised by collectors and much sought after however your book is only valued at about =A38 to =A310, but worth a great deal more in visual appeal.
Chris
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