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Lawson Wood.
Lawson Wood or to give him his full name Clarence Lawson Wood was an Author, Illustrator and Designer. He was born in Highgate, London, on the 23rd August, 1878, into a family of artists and painters, his father, Pinhorn Wood was a landscape painter and his grandfather L.J. Wood was an architectural artist. He studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art, Heatherley's School of Fine Art and at Frank Calderon's School of Animal Painting all before he was 18.
Animals featured greatly in Lawson Wood's work, and as I mentioned earlier the ones that caught my eye first were his ape family pictures but he is also well-known for his pictures of policemen, dinosaurs and Stone Age characters, mostly in humorous situations. He was a regular visitor to London Zoo and I'm sure his observation of the animals contributed to the accuracy and detail in his illustrations. His love of animals was recognised by the Royal Zoological Society who awarded him a fellowship in 1934 for his work with animals and their welfare.
His attention to detail is reflected in a lot of his work and this is why it appeals to me so much. The illustration (above) from Mrs Nibble shows her twins Tony and Tiny on a see-saw made by balancing a spoon on a potted meat jar. Just look at the expression on their faces, sheer pleasure! I love the knot in Tony's tail, the corresponding shadow, the toy left on the floor - forgotten in their enjoyment, all beautifully done.
Lawson Wood lived as something of a recluse in his later years before he died in 1957 at the age of 79.
Contributed by Lorna Evans
UNCLE FLOPPLE HIS FISHING EXCURSION Wood, Lawson. Illustrated by Wood, Lawson. Stock no. 1801045 Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. Very good condition. Part of the Noo-Zoo Tales series. Small format. Pictorial paperwraps. 3.5" x 4.25". Colour and two tone illustrations. Staple binding rusty. Contents clean. A nice example. Price: £20.00 MR PRICKLES HOW HE GOT LOST Wood, Lawson. Illustrated by Wood, Lawson. Stock no. 1801044 Very good condition. Mr. Prickles is a hedgehog. Small pictorial paperwraps with staple binding. Colour and two tone illustrations. 11 pages including rear cover. A nice example. Price: £6.00 THE CHUMMY BOOK - 7TH YEAR Chisholm, Edwin & Russell, Dorothy & Talbot, Ethel & Brazil, Angela & et al,. Illustrated by Wood, Lawson & Attwell, Mabel Lucie & Pearse, S.B. & Anderson, Anne & et al.,. Stock no. 1301137 Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. circa. 1919. Good condition. Cream cloth spine. Pictorial front board shows boy and girl with a rabbit - girl giving rabbit a carrot. 320 pages. Colour plates plus b/w text illustrations throughout. Spine bumped and a little grubby. Corners and cover edges worn. Some rubbing to covers. Browning and light foxing to the rear of the plates. Some grubby fingermarks to page margins. Price: £38.00 LAWSON WOOD'S ANNUAL Groom, Arthur. Illustrated by Wood, Lawson. Stock no. 822038 Dean & Son Ltd. Very good condition with no wrapper. Green cloth spine. Pictorial front board showing animal characters with a donkey on the beach. Spine browned, edges rubbed, corners worn. Not incscribed. A few margin marks but generally a nice, clean copy. Price: £10.00 THE LAWSON WOOD NURSERY RHYME BOOK No author listed. Illustrated by Wood, Lawson. Stock no. 631121 Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. Good condition with no wrapper. Colour pictorial boards. Colour illustrations. Spine has some paper loss. Corners and edges are heavily worn. Some grubby marks to page margins. Child has neatly inked in page numbers. Price: £15.00 MR. TRUNK Wood, Lawson. Illustrated by Wood, Lawson. Stock no. 448289 Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. Slightly better than very good condition. His Day Out. Small square format. Pictorial paperwraps. Colour and two-tone illustrations. Part of the Mr. Books Series. Front cover has a couple of grubby marks. Price: £12.00 View the full list of our 34 books by Lawson Wood
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When tidying along the shelves in the 
For 6 years, from 1896, Lawson Wood worked for C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., a periodical publisher and this is where he met his wife Charlotte Forge. In the same year as he married, 1902, he decided to turn freelance and was enormously successful. He had work published in well known magazines such as 
During active service Lawson Wood continued to draw and had various patriotic designs published. As a member of the Kite Balloon Wing of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War his duties included plane spotting from a balloon - which sounds incredibly dangerous to me. He was decorated by the French for his action over Vimy Ridge. 
Interestingly Lawson Wood's signature changed over the years, at the start of his career he just used LW but later he began to use the distinctive lengthened L at the start of Lawson and the angled parallel lines between the 'N' of Lawson and the 'W' of Wood as shown opposite. The dot in front of the L was said to symbolise his Christian name Clarence which he didn't use (and was said to loathe). 
