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Violet Brunton Collection
Throughout the page that follows, we have presented vintage images from the English artist, Violet Brunton. Those illustrations are drawn from her contributions to Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, Green Magic and Silver Magic.
We have developed a range of Giftware that includes images reproduced from many of the 1st Edition plates in our collection to ensure the most accurate form, line and colour possible. We have utilised a high definition capture and reproduction technique for the images - in contrast to the low definition representation necessary for this website. The illustrations are available as cards, infants' clothing, T-shirts and unmatted, matted or framed prints (8x6", 10x8", 12x10", 15x10" and 30 x 20" images sizes). Pricing starts at US$4 for single Gift Cards (US$18 for select packs of 6) and 10 x 8" prints (double-matted and framed) begin at US$60. Further details on those reproduction images are available at the Giftware section of this site.
Should you wish to discuss an order, please contact us at ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com referencing your request with the Stock Code of the plate, or plates in question and a brief description (and rest assured, we do accept payment through PayPal or Direct Bank Deposit).
In the meantime, enjoy browsing our selection of genuine vintage and antique plates.
The Artwork of Violet Brunton Violet Brunton (1878-1951) was an English artist who honed her talent at the Liverpool School of Art where she studied woodcarving, miniature painting and book illustration. Her work won the County Palatine Scholarship and she was subsequently offered a place at the Royal College of Art in London.
Brunton contributed to two illustrated books published in 1927, The Jeweller of Bagdad and Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach. The following year, her illustrations for Green Magic were published and in 1929, a further illustrated title carrying her contributions, Silver Magic, was published.
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (1927)
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach is an illustrated version of one of the 14 books that comprise the Apocrypha - a section of the Bible that was included in the Authorized Version for the first time in 1611. Even following that inclusion, over time, it was omitted due to various objections and dissension.
Written in Hebrew about 200BC, the work (comprising 51 Chapters) was translated into Greek. Two Prologues exist for the work and as an introduction, the shorter version - called 'A Prologue made by an uncertain Author' - follows:
This Jesus was the son of Sirach, and grandchild to Jesus of the same name with him: this man therefore lived in the latter times, after the people had been led away captive, and called home again, and almost after all the prophets. Now his grandfather Jesus, as he himself witnesseth, was a man of great diligence and wisdom among the Hebrews, who did not only gather the grave and short sentences of wise men, that had been before him, but himself also uttered some of his own, full of much understanding and wisdom. When as therefore the first Jesus died, leaving this book almost perfect, Sirach his son receiving it after him left it to his own son Jesus, who, having gotten it into his hands, compiled it all orderly into one volume, and called it Wisdom, intituling it both by his own name, his father's name, and his grandfather's' alluring the hearer by the very name of Wisdom to have a greater love to the study of this book. It containeth therefore wise sayings, dark sentences, and parables, and certain particular ancient godly stories of men that pleased God; also his prayer and song; moreover, what benefits God had vouchsafed his people, and what plagues he had heaped upon their enemies. This Jesus did imitate Solomon, and was no less famous for wisdom and learning, both being indeed a man of great learning, and so reputed also.
The initial commentary to Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach provided by Hind provides an interesting introduction to the contributions made by Brunton:
When I first saw them I must admit that I was startled, but to be startled, at first glance, is not a bad impulse towards the appreciation of art - especially modern art.
I was startled because the idea of illustrating the sad wisdom of the cultured Jew who wrote 'Ecclesiasticus' two hundred years before Christ seemed strange. But why not? The Bible has been illustrated again and again, and to illustrate a classic strikingly is to introduce the classic to more readers.
Again - I was startled at the idea of illustrating so grave a book as this in colour. But why not? The scenes amid which the author of 'Ecclesiasticus' lived and moved were gay with colour, and these ancient peoples had a fine sense of the decorative value of a pageant - domestic or civic. Miss Violet Brunton's instinct was probably right, and fitter than mine which inclined to the austerity of black and white. I applaud her courage in making these decoratively modern drawings to illustrate the thought of a wise Jew who lived to thousand or more years ago, whose book, to give it the full title, is 'The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus'. In these drawings the ancient and the modern amazedly meet.
The images by Brunton are characteristically brave and in her own unique and powerful style.
Numerous colour and monotone images
Silver Magic (1929)
Silver Magic was the final illustrated book to benefit from the artwork of Violet Brunton, although some of her marginal illustrations were used in the following year's Red Magic that, coincidentally, was also the final book to included images prepared under commission by Kay Nielsen.
It is a collection of 22 fairy-tales compiled by Florence Roma Muir Wilson who was known by the literary pseudonym of Romer Wilson. In addition to compiling the collection, Wilson also contributes through her Introduction which is an informal discussion on subjects of Giants and Dwarfs:
Everybody knows that there are giants, though in these days they never attain to more than about nine feet high, and are only to be seen at Shows and Circuses. But once upon a time it is said that giants were by no means mild creatures, that they grew to prodigious size, and had often as many as nine heads. There were giants who reached up to the sky, and giants who covered several acres when they lay down on the ground, and there were giants quite moderately small who lived in strong castles and at boys for dinner.
"Fee, fi, fo fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he live, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!"
That kind of giant, I fear, was very common. You remember the ogre in Puss in Boots who had a fancy for boiled baby?
In ancient days, long before the Flood, creatures called the Cyclops, with one eye in the middle of their foreheads, are supposed to have built enormous cities; and at certain places in Ireland and in Italy there are walls called Cyclopean walls, built up by nobody knows whom, but made of such immense stones that tradition says they were reared by these giants.
In the far north of Europe another race of giants dwelt. They lived in Jötenheim. The chief of them was called Skyrmir, and he had a kettle a mile deep, a cat that no one could lift from the ground, and an old charwoman who could overthrow the strongest man.
It is not only Europeans who have stories of giants and giant races. The Esquimaux have many a tale of these enormous creatures. There was one who used to play ball with boulders, who in the end was changed to a rock by a Medicine-man. The Esquimaux say that now only his nose and eyes are visible, but that once he wore a red belt which the wind has carried away.
And do not forget the story of David and Goliath, who though not as big as some of the giants of fairy tales, was larger than any man living.
The dwarfs, on the other hand, were the smallest men in the world, and far more numerous than giants, and there are a great number of them still to be seen. There are whole races of dwarfs in the heart of Africa, where it seems they have dwelt from ancient times. Say Pliny, the Roman, of them:
"Higher in the country, even in the edge and skirts of the mountains, the pigmies are reported to be. They are called so because they are but a cubit or three spans high, that is to say, three times nine inches ... And these pretty people Homer has also reported to be much troubled and annoyed by cranes. It is said that in the spring they set out in battle array, mounted upon the backs of rams and goats, armed with bows and arrows, and march down to the sea where they wreck the eggs and kill the young cranelings, which they destroy without pity ... As to their houses and cottages, they are made of clay or mud, fowls' feathers and birds' eggshells. Howbeit Aristotle writes that these pigmies live in hollow caves and holes under the ground."
In ancient times, the pigmies and the cranes were always supposed to be enemies, and several books were written on this subject.
It is said that once the pigmies found Hercules asleep and prepared to attack him, but he, waking up, laughed at the little soldiers, wrapped half a dozen in his lion's skin and carried them off.
Dwarfs and pigmies are always supposed to have been very mischievous, and to have spent their time in sly tricks. For instance, it is told of one that he ran after a sower and as the grains of wheat fell into the furrows he changed them into stones. There were a great number of dwarfs who lived in the mountains and worked for gold, and in particular these dwarfs haunted the mountains of Germany and Scandinavia. Many and many are the stories about them.
In England there was a very famous dwarf. He was called Billy Blind and lived in houses, generally in the back of the open fire, or inglenook. If the people in the house kept on good terms with him he behaved himself and even made things go more easily within doors, but if he got into a temper for any slight reason, he would cause kettles to upset and break pots and cups, and trip people on the stairs, and do all manner of small mischief.
Besides these fairy or legendary dwarfs, there were real dwarfs, often exceedingly clever in a way, sly, malicious and vain, and in olden days, right back into far-off times, kings and noblemen often had pet dwarfs in their households whom they dressed up in ridiculous costumes and whom they spoiled and pampered like lapdogs. In particular the kings and grandees of Spain had a very great fondness for these little folk, and even used to give their small children dwarfs as attendants. I dare say that many a tale that is now a fairy tale had its origin in the pranks of some of these creatures.
Not only were there dwarfs in Africa and Europe, but everywhere all over the world. The Esquimaux say that the dwarfs are very numerous, and so small that their bows and arrows trail along the ground behind them. They find them friendly people. But for my part, though I should have known, had I lived in fairy-tale times, that giants were always to be avoided, I should not have trusted the dwarfs or pigmies either, for they seem very easily to have taken offence by reason of their inordinate vanity (I wonder why little people are so often very vain), and if they were not downright wicked, were ready for all kind of mischief.
The tales collected by Wilson in this title include: "The Miraculous Pitcher"; "Simmerwater: A Yorkshire Phenomenon"; "The most pleasant and delectable tale of The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche"; "The Werewolf"; "Eight Tales from Gesta Romanorum"; "The pleasant history of Reynard the Fox"; "The Goose-Girl at the Well"; "Clever Alice"; "Lohengrin"; "The Master-Thief"; "Boots who had an eating-match with the Troll"; "How the Sea became Salt"; "The Fate of the Children of Lir"; "How Fin MacCool obtained the Knowledge of Future Events"; "Finn MacCool and the Giant"; "O'Donaghue's Pigs"; "Davy Hanlan"; "Some Nonsense"; "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"; "Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper"; "The Yellow Dwarft"; and "Beauty and the Beast".
The images by Brunton are fabulous.
Numerous colour and monotone images
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