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Book Illustration

1934 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This image is for the title-page of Buckaroo, published in 1934. In style and technique it connects Keith Henderson with the world of advertising. Henderson started out as a painter and his first book illustrations for the Romaunt of the Rose, in 1908, come from this painterly past. Later, he worked in advertising, designing posters for London Transport and the Empire Marketing Board. A connection between advertising and book jacket design was being established at this time and many poster artists like Henderson also designed book jackets.

In his later illustrations, Henderson preferred to use scraperboard for images which combined boldness with decorative effects. A drawing board coated in white clay and covered with black ink, from which the ink is scraped away to reveal the white, was developed towards the end of the 19th century for the book industry to replace wood-engraving, but was also widely used in advertising from the 1920s until the 1950s.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Indian ink on scraperboard
Brief description
Book illustration, title page to Buckaroo, by Keith Henderson, Indian ink on scratchboard, 1934.
Physical description
Monochrome image featuring three cowboys on horseback. Title page for the book Buckaroo. The title is below the image on a separate strip of scraperboard.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 14cm
  • Image width: 19.1cm
  • Title height: 3.1cm
  • Title width: 18.8cm
Marks and inscriptions
Buckaroo (picture title; below image on separate strip; hand drawn; ink)
Credit line
Given by the artist
Subjects depicted
Summary
This image is for the title-page of Buckaroo, published in 1934. In style and technique it connects Keith Henderson with the world of advertising. Henderson started out as a painter and his first book illustrations for the Romaunt of the Rose, in 1908, come from this painterly past. Later, he worked in advertising, designing posters for London Transport and the Empire Marketing Board. A connection between advertising and book jacket design was being established at this time and many poster artists like Henderson also designed book jackets.

In his later illustrations, Henderson preferred to use scraperboard for images which combined boldness with decorative effects. A drawing board coated in white clay and covered with black ink, from which the ink is scraped away to reveal the white, was developed towards the end of the 19th century for the book industry to replace wood-engraving, but was also widely used in advertising from the 1920s until the 1950s.
Bibliographic reference
Cunningham, Eugene. Buckaroo. London, 1934.
Collection
Accession number
E.15-1935

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Record createdJanuary 6, 2004
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