We bought some Tom Eckersley ephemera off eBay a while back. Some you might be familiar with, like this exhibition catalogue.
Others perhaps less so.
When the envelope arrived, there were some bonus items too – some photocopies and postcards, most interestingly this one, celebrating 30 years of Iconograda.
The most surprising inclusion, however, was this. A panorama of Tom Eckersley in his study.
Click on it to enlarge. And apologies for the wobbly bit but that’s an ingrained crease and won’t iron out any more than that.
It turns out that the seller had interviewed Tom Eckersley in 1993 when he’d been doing some research on the London Underground. They’d become lunching partners in the last year of Eckersley’s life, and Eckersley had even designed a book cover for him, although this was never used.
There’s not a lot to say about these really. I just thought you’d probably be as delighted and surprised to see them as we were.
Later this week, lots of auctions. In fact a complete deluge of the things.
Fantastic photo of Mr Eckersley in his studio – I like the fact he has a nice full glass of wine beside his chair! I also like the un-glamorous nature of his studio, given that most of the time these days when blogs do features on illustrators and feature photographs of their studios, it’s as if Elle Decoration had ‘styled-up’ their space, with everything neatly arranged & beautiful nick-nacks carefully added to give that touch of design sophistication! Take it from me, as an illustrator, my space is often cluttered with empty coffee mugs, pens, scraps of paper, the kid’s toys, loose change, phone bills, etc etc 🙂
Yes, he’s not living for anyone else’s benefit but his own, is he. An enviable way to be.