I purchased this piece in Australia more than 12 years ago and I would not have paid much, but I don’t remember. I liked the frame and the scene, but it was packed away years ago, and I had not done any research. I only now have carefully taken the artwork out of the frame and realize that it is a Rafael Tuck and Sons piece by Jennie Harbour and it is not a paper print as I thought. It is quite thick card and I had to remove another bit of card with tacks and a thin piece of wood. “Handprinted Facsimilie” is printed underneath bottom left of the piece, Copyright written upper left, Rafael Tuck etc is upper right and “Period Directoir” printed lower right. Harbour is written on the piece itself on the lower right and there is what looks to be a mark of some sort on the piece lower left but I can’t read it. According to the sticker on the back of the frame, the picture was framed at TS Glazier & Co “Gallery of Art” at 264 Chapel St Prahran (Melbourne) Australia. I am trying to date the picture. TS Glazier does not show up in a Google search so I went to Ancestry and traced the firm through the “Australian City Directory 1845-1948”. This art gallery was owned and operated by TS Glazier who is listed as an artist, a manufacturer of picture frames and an art dealer. Glazier was in Bendigo in 1906 but the Gallery appears in Prahran in 1907 at 293 Chapel St but by 1910 was at 264 Chapel St where it remained until 1923 when it is listed as being located on Collins St in Melbourne. I then lose track of it. Everything I have read (and there is very little) is that Jennie Harbour worked for Rafael Tuck starting in 1919. One assumes this piece was framed then between 1919 and 1923 given the location of the company and the address on the frame. That seems such a short window of time between her beginning work at Rafael Tuck and the artwork arriving in Australia and being framed but people were travelling to and from Australia and TS Glazier could have procured the piece himself to sell at his gallery or someone took it to his gallery to be framed. Now to the image itself. I have found the image online and while it is definitely the same drawing, the colourwork is quite different. It is also labeled differently. The online piece has a title that sits a few centimetres below called “A Walk Down the Mall” and the colours are different, Harbour’s signature is more distinctive, and it does not say handprinted facsimilie but rather colour facsimilie. It also seems to be a part of a collection of “Early Victorian” as printed lower right where my piece says “Period Directoir”. https://tuckdbephemera.org/items/9423 I have noticed that many of Harbour’s pieces have these detail titles to describe the scene but mine does not. I feel confident in saying that my piece did not ever have this descriptive title as it was framed by a firm owned by an artist and had the title been there it would have been included in the framing as was the style of the time. I do not think they would have cut the piece to fit a frame but would have created the frame to fit the piece. It was actually framed to where none of the writing was visible. I only saw that when I took the piece out. My question (finally you say!!!) is: do you think this could be a beginning work by Harbour when she was just starting out at Rafael Tuck and experimenting with colour combinations and styles? She could have then used it again when she created her Early Victoria series and boosted the colour palette and changed the label. Is that a common thing for postcard artists? I am not sure when the Early Victorian collection was done but my piece had to have been available sometime after 1919 and before 1923 to have found its way to that particular gallery in Prahran. I am not planning to part with the piece as I find both the image and the frame itself to be quite charming but I would like to add a bit of description and history for whomever ends up with it and am hoping there are some Rafael Tuck & Sons fans here with more knowledge of the company and their work. Thanks.
Did you contact the person that is writing a biography for Jennie Harbour? They have a website dedicated to the artist. Their email is BRAMWITH22@AOL.COM
Oh thank you so much Lithographer. I was not aware. I had actually found very little history about her, mainly just examples of her work. I will contact for sure.
What a fabulous site Lithographer. I had missed this entry completely and it is so rich with information and examples. I will contact the biographer and send her the few details I have about my piece which gives a date range if nothing else. Every little bit of info helps. Thank you so much again.
