Apr 24, 2008 - Sale 2143

Sale 2143 - Lot 76

Price Realized: $ 10,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(ILLUSTRATION.) Lawser, Mary Louise. Now A Days. 44 original illustrations for an unpublished children's book plus 21 mimeographed sheets of type containing the text of the story. Images vary in size, all inlaid to size in folding 305x250 mm boards, taped on verso edges, each with hand-drawn red and black hairline borders; Lawser's name and address stamp, in blue ink, on verso of each image; all laid into cloth and board folder with her name and address printed on a label mounted to front cover. Drexel Hill, Penn., circa 1940
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

beautiful finished drawings for an unpublished work. A story of two young country children who board a train to the big city. They discover the excitement of modern city life and the thrill of a large department store full of wonders. The images are brightly-colored and have an Art Deco style, often playing with perspectives of distance and height.

Mary Louise Lawser (1908-1985) began her study of fine art at the Pennsylvania Museum School in Philadelphia. Later she attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and L'École des Beaux Arts, where she studied sculpture and won a number of prizes for her work. While working for architect Paul Cret in the 1940s, Lawser completed many decorations for streamlined trains of the New York Central, Topeka & Santa Fe, the famed California Zephyr train, and Western Pacific lines, among others. In preparing these decorations, she relied on her skills in painting, sculpture, and linoleum and wood carving. In later years, Mary Lawser produced decorations for the Burlington's Denver Zephyr. In addition, her work appeared in public works projects in New York City and Philadelphia. Now A Days displays her talents as a muralist and sculptor in its creative use of color, shape, and perspective as well as showing Lawser's great skill at illustrating modes of transportation like cars, trains, planes, escalators and elevators. An extremely charming work.