Antique Collecting articles William Heath Robinson - June 2015 | Page 2

Fig 4. Deeds of Kindness: Heroic Conduct of Engine Driver in Sacrificing his Reputation for
Punctuality to Save the Life of a Stranded Eel, 1925, signed and captioned, pen and black
ink and grey wash, 15 x 11in. Somehow an engine driver has managed to split open
his boiler in order to supply water to a luckless eel. Note the extreme disproportion
between the damage done, the inconvenience to passengers as a result, and the
saving of a tiny eel. Sold for £5,730, July 2009

the horrors of war offered some mild respite
to those wallowing in the muddy horrors of
northern France for WHR’s Great War
illustrations champion the weary but
determined foot soldier while tactfully ignoring
the questionable judgements of some of the
generals. WHR’s reputation and critical acclaim
were high and the Second World War offered
up many exciting new devices to enliven
WHR’s imagination. Aeroplanes presented
numerous opportunities for absurdity whilst
the threat of invasion allowed the Home
Guard to show off all manner of impromptu
defence initiatives. Through the distorted lenses
of war, the allies’ actions were no less appalling
to WHR than those of the Nazis themselves
but, for fear of hitting the wrong note, he once
again diffused the situation with humour that
showed the Nazis to be (almost) equally
wronged. WHR’s approach to humour gave his
publisher, Methuen, concern that they may be
misread as flippant, disrespectful or just cynical.
Methuen felt obliged to offer this disclaimer in
22

Fig 5. Consequences: How a Fallen Crumb May be the Means of Destroying the
Reputation of a Respectable Citizen, signed, captioned, pen and ink and grey
wash, 16 x 11.5in. Published in “Hutchinson’s Magazine” in 1924. WHR is
fascinated again by the disproportion between ends and means, skilfully
inverted here (and in figure 2) to show how a tiny action can have huge
and unforeseeable consequences. Sold for £2,980, January 2010

a 1942 publication: “The drawings in this
collection have been designed solely to amuse.
Heath Robinson makes fun of all that is serious
in these serious times, but only such fun as one
may poke at an old friend and receive a smile
in return.”
Multi talented
Part of the delight of WHR’s work is not so
much the ease of recognition as its surprising
diversity. If we set aside his landscape
sketches, we find sober book illustrations
worthy of Kipling’s works (fig 2);
extravagantly detailed fairytale subjects not
so far removed from those of the great
Charles Doyle (1832-1893); and three
specific categories of humorous subject
matter. There were cartoons that focused on
mild stereotypes (the Scots were a source of
great amusement to WHR, see fig 3), there
were cartoons that explored themes of
consequences and improvisation (see figures
4 and 5) and there were the fascinating

gadgets and contraptions that served to
define his legacy (see figures 6, 7, 8 and 9).
Despite WHR’s immense popularity during
his lifetime, his reputation waned after his
death (from a heart condition compounded by
fatigue) in September 1944. We have been
denied WHR’s take on the euphoria of VE Day,
but he died just too soon to comment on the
horrors of the atomic bomb that would
undoubtedly have been considered a mad
invention too far for this mild-mannered
pacifist. There was a retrospective exhibition at
The Fine Art Society in 1945 and books about
him were published in 1947 and 1966 but it
wasn’t until 1972 that a centenary exhibition at
The Medici Society re-kindled some interest in
WHR. A huge cache of his original artwork had
been found in a warehouse, neglected but
mercifully not discarded, and these were
gathered into anthologies to be met with keen
interest even though the old-fashioned style
must have seemed quite out of place in the
youthful Carnaby Street hedonism of the time.

Fig 6 Accustoming Oneself to the
Vagaries of Our Climate in a Specially
Designed and Hermetically Sealed
Glass Cabinet, 1941, captioned, pen
and black ink, 8.5 x 5.75in. One of
873 drawings by WHR for the
seven volumes of the How to.. series
from 1936-1943 (this is from How
to Build a New World). Note the
focused, stern seriousness of the
man. A whisky and soda will be the
reward for his exhausting work. Sold
for £1,670, July 2009.

Fig 7. Safe Road Crossing for
Pedestrians, captioned, pen and black
ink, 8.5 x 5.5in. Another drawing from
How to Build a New World of 1941, this
neat and relatively simple design looks
almost sensible. Sold for £2,620, July
2009

Fig 8. Stretching Spaghetti by the New
Magnetic Method when Spaghetti is
Rationed, signed, inscribed Rough
Sketch, captioned, pen and black ink
over pencil, 13.25 x 9.5in. This is just
a ‘work in prog