Though he was miserable, the evenings given to illustration estab- lished his stylistic foundations and produced his first published book Legends From Fairyland , drawn throughout 1906 and published in 1907. This illustrat- ed edition of Holme Lee’s popular collection of fairy stories, a collaboration with his brother Reginald, lavishes its pages with head- and tailpieces, initial letters and marginals to accompany the full-page plates and constitutes an excellent example from book illustration’s Golden Age, with friend and col- league Charles Robinson providing the design for the gilt upper cover. Their mother, widowed six years earlier, is the dedicatee of “this our joint attempt in the illustration & decoration of a book.” Three years later Norse Fairy Tales was published, the second product of these evening drawing sessions. Reginald drew the cover illustration, the endpapers and all the colour plates except that of ‘The Blue Belt’, which was designed and executed by both brothers in collaboration. A more artisanal production than their previous work, the vignettes and full-page illustra- tions show Horace’s preference for pen and ink over his brother’s command of watercolour. After the success of his first two books, Horace decided to quit Cutler’s and start up on his own as a full-time freelance artist. His first commission was two illuminated addresses drawn onto vellum and then coloured in gold and full colour, followed by a number of commissions of drawings for church magazines. When war came, Knowles did not enlist until 1916, spending the first two years continuing work on costume design and preparing the body of work which became Peeps Into Fairyland . On entering the army he took the trade test for draughtsmanship and, naturally enough, passed. This had him removed to Bedford and Cardington Aerodrome in the 5th Bedfordshire Regiment, where he would “make drawings for the large rigid airships of the zeppelin type being constructed then.” He remained there from enlist- ment in May 1916 until discharge in January 1919, having remained a private for the war’s duration. Just as he had found time for creativity when em- ployed as an engineer’s draughtsman, he too worked on two commissions for Methuen while a military draughtsman. These two works, a book of fairy verse, Cowslips and Kingcups, by Char- lotte Drewilt Cole, and a colour frontispiece for Among The Innocents by
Above and below: Finished pen and ink drawings by Horace J. Knowles for Legends From Fairyland, 1907 (Items 1-5).
HORACE J. KNOWLES 15
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