Attributed to William Heath Robinson, Paper Making at Thomas...

Hammer

£500

Attributed to William Heath Robinson, Paper Making at Thomas & Green, ink on tracing paper, signed, 35 x 48 cm

Provenance: The owner worked as the Financial Controller at Thomas & Green, see notes in Condition Report

More Information

From the owner:
Between 1976 and 1979 I worked as the Financial Controller at Thomas & Green Ltd, a paper mill known as Soho Mills based near Wooburn Green in Buckinghamshire. In early 1979 George Mandl, the current owner at the time of the paper mill, decided that some of the offices had to be cleared out. The paper mill had been operating since the 1860s and there were a lot of historic records etc that had accumulated over the years and stored in the cupboards in the various offices.
It was during this clearing out process that I saw a cardboard scroll had been thrown into the skip pile ready for dumping. I retrieved it out of curiosity and found the Heath Robinson drawing rolled up inside it. At the time I had no idea who Heath Robinson was, but it intrigued me that the drawing was done on tracing paper and that there were some printed copies rolled up with the original drawing. I asked if I could keep the drawing as it was quite comical and it appealed to me. It seemed a shame to leave it in the skip pile. Having been told I could keep it, I took it home and framed one of the copies to hang in my office at Thomas & Green, and when I left, I kept it at home in my study. The original and the other copies were kept safely at home in their original scroll as a reminder of my enjoyable 3 years of working at the mill which was so steeped in history.
Michael Klimes, the then Managing Director, also had a printed drawing of the Mill signed by Heath Robinson, and I was told that that drawing was used for a calendar that was issued some years ago in the 1920s or so. I have since seen that drawing again, thanks to the current availability of Google and the internet.
I asked around at Thomas & Green at the time I was there, why there was this tracing paper drawing which differed from the one in the MD’s office. I was told that Heath Robinson was commissioned to do a drawing of the mill for a calendar back in the 1920s, and that the one I had was his first attempt and that it was rejected. Hence it was discarded into the cupboard where it was found in 1979. I was also told that it was drawn on tracing paper so that copies could be printed from it as that was one of the ways to print copies in those days.
It was many years later I discovered that Heath Robinson was a well known and respected artist.
The above is my account of how I came to have the drawing and the history that I discovered concerning its origins, which I have given to the best of my knowledge and belief.
AB
Chartered Accountant (SA)
7 December 2023