L. Wood sketchbook of poster and show card designs

This single volume sketchbook by English artist L. Wood contains graphite and painted advertising designs created for posters and show cards used in windows of London-based companies active in the 1920s. Eight of the drawings have been painted, and the others bear notes describing colors to be used, such as “dark buff,” “cerise,” and “Vandyke brown.”

Most of Wood’s pencil sketches related to businesses and entertainers active in England during the 1920s. Wood created designs for Stoll Films, London department store Marshall & Snelgrove, Austin Reed Ltd. (a British fashion retailer), Humber bicycles, and the Gramophone Company’s HMV (“His Master’s Voice”) label. Wood also completed preliminary sketches to promote theater manager Lupino Lane, film actress Mae Marsh, and dancers the Dolly Sisters.

Wood did not reference specific clients in the eight painted designs included in this volume. These designs included a ship with black sails, several landscapes with colorful trees, and advertisements for Easter gifts.

This volume has covers bound in dark brown canvas or cloth. It includes text and drawings in pencil on unlined pages as well as eight graphite drawings filled in with paint. The title page reads “Poster &/Showcard/Designs/1924/by/L. Wood.” This text is surrounded by a geometrical pencil border. Drawings are on both the rectos and versos of leaves. The volume contains 78 pages of text and drawings and 104 blank pages.