Allen Seaby: the later years

Having left London to go and work at Reading, Allen Seaby eventually bought a plot of land at the small place of Tiptoe in Hampshire. Tiptoe lies in the New Forest which still has large areas of common grazing and woodland that make a home for one of the native breeds of pony. It was both the ponies and birdlife that attracted him and he set about building a hut for himself and his family and began recording the wildife all around it.

I would guess he also made trips to Exmoor and Dartmoor and perhaps even as far as Shetland to see the different breeds that lived there. He had become an enthusiast for the conservation of native ponies, believing that 'We can only be sure that our native British ponies are, like ourselves, of Celtic origin'. Surprisingly, in a way, they provided the subject for only three of his colour woodcuts, the one above of the Exmoor breed, the one below for Dartmoor (it's the central section) and Shetland. No doubt he realised he hadn't set himself an easy task, depicting both a herd of ponies and where they lived. He adds a touch of windswept nobilty but they remain nice if uneventful as pictures. He also admitted to the 'agony of composition' so I think picture-making didn't come naturally. Even so, they are intimate and personal in a way some of his other work is not. And this, really, is the aim of the post, to bring out a quieter side to Seaby's work.

If it also brings out his limitations, well, it does. I think the monochrome print of rabbits at the head of the post is a fine piece of work - domestic, unpretentious and wonderfully realised. Urushibara's rabbits are more stylish but much less like actual rabbits than Seaby's. But his landscapes with ponies rely on the keyblock for modelling. He's a wonderful printer and colourist but a conventional draughtsman and they tend towards colour-by-numbers. That said, if I could have the Shetland ponies back that I once sold, I would - though preferably not laid down this time.

This is the Seaby hut at Tiptoe. Perhaps when it was too wet to go out and draw, he stayed inside and wrote because in the early twenties he became a prolific writer. He was particularly well-known for his 'Skewbald' series for children set in the New Forest but also wrote Welsh and Exmoor pony books. He was well aware of the changes in the lives of the ponies. There are stories of wild ponies that are brought onto farms and when they are no longer of use there become beach or circus ponies. Afraid at the time that the native breeds had outlived their usefulness and would die out, he wanted to interest children in the the hope that they would want to ride them.

I think you can just make out that 'Exmoor Lass' was published in 1928. The illustration below is from a Dartmoor series. I have to admit that I've not read any of the books but they have been described as 'rambling and episodic' which just goes to show that the lives of native ponies and bloggers are really quite similar.

There may be other reasons why Seaby began to write so much. It may be as the twenties came to a close even his prints failed to sell. As few of them have dates, for me it's hard to tell where many come in his career. His Dartmoor ponies are certainly from 1927 and for those of you who don't want to lose sight of the Japanese Seaby, a woodcut with a crow and a fox, followed by one of a hare.

'Our ponies' was one of the Puffin Picture book series and it's a shame Seaby didn't get to use lithography for them. This was published in 1949.

He finally published two editions of British Birds and their nests in 1953 and 1954. This was part of a ground-breaking project by Ladybird Books in Britain. Untill then, they had only published in a cheaper format and Seaby was chosen for the obvious first topic to interest children in native wildlife. He was 86 the year of the second edition and I think we can forgive him if he did fall back on a woodcut design.

It's not exactly the same as the cover. But it is close to Walther Klemm's kingfisher of 1913 (see Walther Klemm: a book of birds). It's a fine image, Japanese in feel and more true to a kingfisher than Klemm would be. And this is where his achievement was remarkable. He stayed true to his subject while he approachesd them either with bravura as we saw in the last post or subtlety as we see here. They may all be of animals and perhaps his style became set but he was able to work at different levels. He was pragmatic.

To finish off, here vare the Shetland ponies in their Celtic homeland, what he called 'the high, far and lonely islands'. He was a countryman by adoption but there speaks the native Londoner. And that brings us to Eric Hesketh Hubbard, another Londoner. His version of the New Forest is coming next.