If you are looking to acquire 553 original artworks for PAN book covers they are currently up for offers on eBay. They form the basis for the book ‘Cover Me’ by Colin Larkin and as much as I would love to bid the premium bonds have let me down again.
I’ve added a few more covers related to the ‘Jeremy James’ books and I have also been in contact with Fred Apps who is looking to see if he has any of his original artwork. His Piccolo covers was based on the covers he did for Dent but I’m wondering why PAN felt the need to add eyes and a mouth to the train? The German, French and Turkish editions all use the artwork by Axel Scheffler. I feel there must be a few more edition out there so they’ll get added to my ‘to look out for’ list.
Having found a printer’s proof for X259 ‘The Exile’ by Pearl Buck that I had forgotten about, I have now added it to the page along with the original artwork by David Tayler.
I recently picked up a couple of pieces of original artwork and this week I’m including G140 ‘Jambo!’ by Olle Strandberg with a cover also by David Tayler. I have tried to get David back on Wikipedia but they keep saying there is copyright material. This is the content of the article without formatting and I’m blowed if I can see what they don’t like.
David Graham Tayler (21 February 1921 – 2 June 1985) was a British commercial artist who specialised in book cover art in the 1950s and 60s. He was best known for his careful research and detailed accuracy in depiction. Tayler was born in Lancaster, the son of Edward Douglas Tayler, organist and professor of music. The family moved to New Zealand in 1926 when E.D. Tayler took up the appointment of Supervisor & Director of Vocal Music in Schools. In 1931 E.D. Tayler resigned this position. In 1932 he was at the University of California, Berkeley. After E.D. Tayler’s untimely death at Berkeley in August 1932, Tayler returned to England with his mother. In 1937 he enrolled at Wimbledon School of Art where, by 1940, he completed a Teaching Diploma. When war broke out in 1939, Tayler joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and served in the Home Guard. In 1940 he was called up into the RAF. In 1946 he enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, and was awarded a diploma in 1948. In 1955, while teaching at Leatherhead County Secondary School, now Therfield School, Tayler illustrated his first book covers. Tayler illustrated covers for Corgi, Archer, Arrow, Mayflower Press & Pan books, as well as hardback publishers such as Harrap, Rich & Cowan, and Herbert Jenkins. The subjects were varied and included Westerns, War (WWII and former wars), Biography, Crime, Travel, Natural History, Romance. Tayler signed his pictures with TAYLER in capitals, usually horizontally but occasionally vertically. Comment by Pat Owen, Pan cover artist: “There were some artists who could do anything, and they were obviously given anything to do. There were some who were better at some things than others but, beyond that it was really who was available, who could do something quickly. David Tayler, for example, I’m pretty sure I am right in saying he needed about a month, so what he was given had to be carefully sorted out and we wouldn’t give him what we thought at the time was a trashy old book to do. He was given books worthy of his ability” The end of the 1960s, however, brought about a change in book cover illustration. Photographs were increasingly used and a style of painting which was less detailed and therefore more quickly completed became popular. Tayler was not the only artist to find he could no longer make a living through cover art. Tayler continued to paint while doing other work. He undertook commissions and exhibited his work locally. In 1952 he married Delma Savell, a former pupil of his at Leatherhead County Secondary School. They lived in Dorking, Surrey, and had one child, John Mark. In 1979, aged 58, Tayler suffered a stroke. He died on 2 June 1985. His residence at that time was the Gower Peninsula near Llanrhidian.
Tayler painted at least 77 signed covers for PAN and several more without a signature. There are 45 of his paintings in the sale on eBay.
