Biography
Mabel Lucie Attwell was born in the East End of London at 182 Mile End Road where the family had run a butchers shop for two generations, on June 4th 1879, the ninth of ten children, although three died in infancy. Demand for Mabel Lucie Attwell’s distinctive artwork started in her student days at St Martin’s School of Art. An immensely prolific artist, Mabel Lucie Attwell’s output spanned 60 years encompassing book illustrations, comic strips and advertisements. Mabel Lucie Attwell married fellow artist Harold Earnshaw on her 29th birthday, 4th June 1908 spending their honeymoon in Babbacombe Bay, Devon. The newlyweds made their first home at Wickham Mansions in Dulwich, South London where their daughter Marjorie Joan (Peggy) was born on 13th May 1909. After the arrival of their first child with more space needed, they moved to Coulsden, near Farthing Down on the edge of the North Downs south of London, which was quite rural in those days. Their second child, a boy Peter was born in 1911 and another son Brian completed the family arrived in 1914.
Mabel Lucy Attwell became well known for her Chubbies, the first of which was released in 1920 and continued through until the early 1960's. These delightful round faced, dimple cheeked, smiling babies and children idealized childhood pranks and good deeds. Old prints of the Chubbies are highly prized and realize large sums when they come up for sale. In 1921 J.M. Barrie himself requested that she should illustrate the gift book edition of his Peter Pan and Wendy which was to become a best seller and the most successful of her books She died peacefully at her home in Fowey, Cornwall, where she spent the last twenty years of her life, at the age of 85 on 5th November 1964 outliving her husband by some 28 years.

Book Illustrations
Between 1910 and 1920 Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrated classic fairy tales including Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Mother Goose, Alice in Wonderland, Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales and The Water Babies. Recognizing that her artwork was so appealing to children, J.M. Barrie requested that she should be the illustrator of a gift book edition of Peter Pan and Wendy. 1922 saw the publication of the first Lucie Attwell Annual, and she went on to produce one every year uninterrupted for the next 52 years, (for 10 years after her death using previously published material.)

Commercial Art
Mabel Lucie Attwell’s work has broad appeal; this was born out by the success of the many promotions featuring her artwork ranging from the London Underground poster campaigns to advertisements for hundreds of household products. Her communication skills lent themselves perfectly to the medium of the postcard. “I see the child in an adult. Then I draw the adult as a child.” From 1911 Mabel Lucie Attwell designed more than a thousand postcards at a rate of 24 illustrations a year for Valentine & Sons Post cards. One postcard design could sell as many as half a million copies a month; they were available worldwide with caption translations and some dual-language editions.

Merchandise Development
The popularity of Mabel Lucie Attwell’s artwork led to the development of an extensive merchandise program including high-quality china figures and nursery sets by Shelley Potteries, the celebrated bathroom plaque “Please remember-don’t forget...,” calendars, greetings cards, shopping lists, jigsaw puzzles, biscuit tins, bars of motto soap, enamel badges and pictorial handkerchiefs, to mention just a few items which have used the prestigious Mabel Lucie Attwell name.

My thanks to Chris Beetles author of ‘Mable Lucie Attwell’
and author John Henty ‘The Collectable World of Mabel Lucie Attwell’