Extraordinarily rare, the pictures from Sussex resident Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book increased the number of known surviving originals from a set of 16 to just six.
The pair sold at Roseberys London this week for a combined total of £130,480 – smashing the £40,000 top estimate for both illustrations.
The first work by Charles Maurice Detmold, depicting the Bandar-log or “monkey people”, saw intense bidding both online and on the telephone. One phone bidder hesitated at £26,000 before returning with a final bid of £27,000. The lot eventually sold online to a UK buyer for £36,640.
The second illustration by Edward Julius Detmold, depicting Mowgli with the black panther Bagheera, soared past its £15,000–£20,000 estimate. Four bidders online and on the telephones pursued the work before it finally sold to a phone bidder for £93,840.
“The level of bidding reflects just how rarely works of this importance appear on the market,” said Lara L’vov-Basirov, head of old master, British and European pictures at Roseberys.
“To offer two of the seven known surviving original watercolours from the Jungle Book series was exceptional, and collectors immediately recognised their significance both as works of art and as part of the visual history of Kipling’s most famous book. It is immensely gratifying to see them achieve such strong results.”
The drawings, which depict scenes from The Jungle Book, had hung unrecognised on the walls of a London family home for decades. The revelation astonished the former owners.
“We are absolutely delighted with these results,” said the anonymous seller.
“We’ve cherished these works in our family home for decades and we hope that the next custodians enjoy them as much as we have.”
The two newly rediscovered works were produced by the twin artistic prodigies Edward Detmold (1883-1957) and Charles Maurice Detmold (1883-1908), known as Maurice, and were published when they were just 20. It proved to be their final joint venture, as Maurice took his own life aged 25.
The Detmolds won the commission aged just 18, having already exhibited at the Royal Academy aged just 13.
Their interpretation helped shape the public image of Kipling’s characters and settings until Disney’s 1967 animation created a new visual tradition.
The watercolours were created in 1902/3 for Sixteen Illustrations of Subjects from Kipling’s children’s classic, a deluxe portfolio commissioned by Macmillan & Co in 1903.
Reportedly limited to 500 copies, the 1903 portfolio was published separately from the book itself, which had been first published in 1894. The original edition collected stories that Kipling had previously published in magazines in 1893 and 1894, and included illustrations from the author’s father amongst other artists.
In 1908, the first standard printed edition of The Jungle Book incorporating the Detmold illustrations within the book format (bound with text) was published by Macmillan. This edition contained the 16 plates and a frontispiece illustrated by the Detmold twins.
Two original water colours from The Jungle Book have been rediscovered (Image: Roseberys)
Because the plates were often removed and framed individually, complete 1903 portfolios are now extremely rare. Among other institutions, a copy is held by the Library of Congress.
Rarer still are the original watercolours produced for the project. Before this discovery, only four were known to survive, now split between private collections, the Natural History Museum and the National Trust.
One of them, The Return of the Buffalo Herd, is on display at Bateman’s in Burwash, Kipling’s former home that is now owned by the National Trust.
Both works were exhibited in 1903 at The Dutch Gallery, London in ‘An Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings. Illustrations to Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book”, etc. By Maurice and Edward Detmold’.
Rudyard Kipling was the first English language author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, awarded in 1907 when he was 41. He is also the youngest laureate – a record that still stands.
Source link
[Featured]
[Just In]
