Watercolour drawing by Edith A. Cubitt, ca.1900; commissioned by Ernest Nister.

Pen and ink and watercolour drawing on stiff card of four children playing. A girl has a length of rope slipped over each arm, the ends of which are held by the boy behind as though she is a horse and the rope reins. The boy also holds a stick which he pretends to use as a whip. Another girl and boy run alongside, the girls holding hands. The boy holding the reins wears a brown floppy hat and brown shorts with a pale green shirt and red and white necktie. The other boy wears brown shorts with a blue sailor shirt and blue Noddy-style hat. The girl pretending to be a horse wears red with her straw hat slipped down her back. The other girl wears a blue dress with white polka dots and a white pinafore. A brown dog runs alongside the children in the foreground. In the background a house is partly hidden behind trees and a white gate leads to a yellow field beyond. Mounted on card.

Donated by Anne Renier and F.G. Renier.

Drawn by Edith A. Cubitt ca. 1900 for Ernest Nister. Bequeathed to the V&A in 1970 by Anne and Fernand G. Renier as part of the Renier Collection.

Ernest Nister (1842-1909) began his publishing career in 1885 when he acquired a lithographic workshop in Nürnberg and printed books for London publishers. In 1888 he became a publisher in his own right with offices at 24 St. Bride Street, London. He appointed the writer and editor, Robert Ellice Mack, as director.

Nister specialised in high quality colour printing for children in the last quarter of the 19th century. Movable books with various mechanisms became his speciality after 1890 (when be published his first stand-up book) but he also produced numerous picture books, annuals, poetry, nursery rhymes, calendars and greetings cards. He worked with a core of writers, including Clifton Bingham and Robert Ellice Mack, and illustrators, in particular Eveline Lance, Harriett M. Bennett, Edith A. Cubitt and Rosa Petherick.

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