MONTHLY FEATURES
(Stanley) Howard Leigh
(1909
– 1942)
Many
aviation collectors and dealers will have encountered Howard Leigh’s work in
postcard, book, magazine, boys paper, or art-print form, perhaps without giving
a second thought to his name! Leigh was one of the finest aviation artists of
the 1930’s. Today he is best remembered as the illustrator of the earliest
‘Biggles’ books by W E Johns. However he made a wider contribution to
aviation art during the inter-war period. Since his death, his work has been
somewhat neglected by collectors including the postcard fraternity. Certainly
his artistic talents are deserving of more attention.
This
article will focus on his postcard illustrations. I aim to provide a brief
biography and checklist of his cards. I must stress that biographical and
bibliographical details are scarce so this is an incomplete listing of his work,
based upon my own limited collection, and that of others – I would welcome any
details or offers of cards or series that are not listed here!
Howard
Leigh was brought up in Edgbaston, close to an RAF recruitment depot. Upon
leaving school in the late 1920’s, it was his brother-in-law, and
‘Biggles’ author, W E Johns who had initially encouraged Howard to make the
most of his artistic skills. Beside this ‘apprenticeship’, he received no
formal art training. It could be
argued that this is evident in the naïveté of some of his early artwork, and
his reluctance to include the human form in his illustrations! Certainly his
strengths lay more in the grace, and technical accuracy of his work. For a while
he worked with Johns in the “Aircraft
& General Fine Art Company” which had been newly established in East
Grinstead, Sussex. The output of this company included amongst others, aviation
Christmas cards, playing cards, jigsaws, postcards and calendars. If any APCC
readers have details of items produced by this company, I would be grateful (the
only postcards I am aware of are by the artist Frank L Westley with
“A&G” written vertically alongside his signature on the cards).
By the
early 1930’s, Leigh had established his name as an aviation artist and was
beginning to contribute to aviation periodicals of the day (including the early
issues of ‘Popular Flying’). During these years, he made several attempts at
writing, restricting himself to aviation non-fiction, mainly historical. Most
notable was his stunning book ‘Planes of
the Great War 1914-1918’ (published by John Hamilton in 1934). He also
wrote two series of the popular ‘Aircraft
Modellers Guide’ (John Hamilton, 1933 & 1935) and was editor of the
splendid ‘New Book of the Air’ (Oxford University Press, 1935) for which he
also provided most of the illustrations!
The
earliest postcards illustrated by Howard Leigh are reputed to be those that were
collected together to form the 50 illustrations in ‘Planes
of the Great War 1914-1918’. I have only seen scans of some of these cards.
Accompanying this article is an illustration of the dust-wrapper and one of the
prints from the book. Large collotype prints of these illustrations were also
available prior to collection in book form in 1934 and were advertised in
‘Popular Flying’. The distinctive, precise pen and ink drawings are easily
recognisable. Few of the illustrations credit the artist, although both the
prints and the book illustrations bear printed pencil signatures which dealers
occasionally pass off as ‘hand-signed’! In view of the scarcity of these
cards, I find it unlikely that all 50 illustrations would have been issued in
card form.
Illustration
1 – Dust-wrapper of ‘Planes of the Great War’
Illustration
2 – Armstrong-Whitworth F.K.8 from ‘Planes of the Great War’
In the
mid 1930’s, the ‘Air League of the British Empire’ commissioned Howard Leigh to
provide a series of colour cards. Civil, military and historic planes were
included in this series which ran to a total of 60 cards. The cards were issued
in sets of 6 at approximately 6-monthly intervals. The early albums are undated,
but the first series is likely to date from 1934. The set was completed in
December 1938 (Series 10). Each card could be inserted into an album,
accompanied by a separate paper slip providing specifics of the aircraft
illustrated. The album-issue cards all have blank backs.
Most of these cards bear the printed signature ‘Howard
Leigh’ though a few are unsigned.
All the identification slips for the albums credit Howard Leigh as the artist. A
number of variants of the cards exist with postcard backs or aircraft
recognition silhouettes. It is likely these were sold separately. The postal
dates for these variants suggest they were issued at a later date than the
albums.
Illustration
3 – ‘The Air Leaguers Album of British Aircraft’ cover
Illustration
4 – Album page – Series 1, Number 1 - The De Havilland ‘Comet’
Howard
Leigh continued to illustrate aviation books and magazines until the outbreak of
WWII. This included an advertising campaign for KLG spark-plugs, but to the best
of my knowledge, no further postcards. He joined the National Fire Service and
at the time of his death in February 1942 was a Senior Company Officer. He was
aged only 32.
There
follows a checklist of Howard Leigh’s postcards. I hope this article will
stimulate awareness of the important role Howard Leigh played in aviation art
and postcards of the 1930’s. If APCC readers can help with details of cards I
have omitted from this checklist then I would very much appreciate any
information.
Checklist
of Howard Leigh Postcards
Pen &
Ink collotype prints
Simultaneous
historical art-prints and postcards were issued of ‘Planes of the Great War
1914-1918’, prior to collection in book form in 1934.
10
albums, each containing 6 colour cards with blank backs, most bearing the
printed signature “Howard Leigh”. Beneath each card in the album was a
separate insert containing specifications of the featured plane.
Series
1 (c1934. All unsigned - Howard Leigh is credited on the separate paper
slips)
Series 1 No 1. The De
Havilland “Comet”
Series 1 No 2. The
Airspeed “Envoy”
Series 1 No 3. The
Short “Scipio”
Series 1 No 4. The De
Havilland Four-Engined Express Air Liner (D.H.86)
Series 1 No 5. The
Avro “642”
Series 1 No 6. The
Miles “Hawk-Major”
Series
2
(all signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 2 No 1. The
Gloster “Gauntlet”
Series 2 No 2. The
Hawker “Hart”
Series 2 No 3. The
Fairey “Hendon”
Series 2 No 4. The
Short R.24/31
Series 2 No 5. The
Supermarine Day-And-Night Single Seater Fighter
Series 2 No 6. The
Westland “Wallace”
Illustration
5 – Air League – Series 2, Numbers 1 & 3 - The Gloster ‘Gauntlet’
& The Fairey Hendon
Series
3
(all signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 3 No 1. D.H.2
Series 3 No 2.
Nieuport XXVII
Series 3 No 3. Spad
Series 3 No 4.
Bristol Fighter
Series 3 No 5.
Sopwith “Camel”
Series 3 No 6. S.E.5a
Series
4
(all signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 4 No 1. The
Hawker Monoplane
Series 4 No 2. The
Short “Empire” Flying Boat
Series 4 No 3. The
Fairey “Battle”
Series 4 No 4. The
Monospar S.T.18 “Croydon”
Series 4 No 5. The
Bristol Type 142 – “Britain First”
Series 4 No 6. The
Avro 652
Illustration
6 – Air League – Series 4, Number 2 - The Imperial Airways Short
‘Empire’ Flying Boat
Series
5
(all unsigned – Howard Leigh is credited on the separate paper slips)
Series 5 No 1. The
Westland “Lysander”
Series 5 No 2. The
Short-Mayo Composite Aircraft
Series 5 No 3. The
Handley Page H.P.52
Series 5 No 4. The
B.A “Double Eagle”
Series 5 No 5. The
Vickers “Wellington” MK.1
Series 5 No 6. The
Miles “Mohawk”
Illustration
7 – Air league – Series 5, Number 1 & 2 – The Westland Lysander and
the Short Mayo composite aircraft.
Series
6
(all signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 6 No 1. The De
Havilland “Albatross”
Series 6 No 2. The
Bristol Type 138a
Series 6 No 3. The
Armstrong Whitworth “Ensign”
Series 6 No 4. The
Blackburn Naval Dive Bomber
Series 6 No 5. The
Clyde “Clipper”
Series 6 No 6. The
Vickers Supermarine “Stranraer”
Illustration
8 – Air League – Series 6, Number 5 - The Clyde ‘Clipper’
Series
7
(January 1937. All signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 7 No 1. The
Percival “Mew Gull”
Series 7 No 2. The
Saro “London”
Series 7 No 3. The
Hillson “Praga”
Series 7 No 4. The
A.W “Whitley”
Series 7 No 5. The
Slingsby “Kirby Kite” Sailplane
Series 7 No 6. The
Gloster F.5/34
Series
8
(March 1938. all signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 8 No 1. The
Percival “Q.6”
Series 8 No 2. The
Vickers “Wellesley”
Series 8 No 3. The
Hafner Gyroplane A.R.III Mk.II
Series 8 No 4. The
Airspeed “Queen Wasp”
Series 8 No 5. The
“Chilton” Monoplane
Series 8 No 6. The
Miles R.R Trainer
Illustration
9 – Air League - Series 8, Number 3 - The Hafner Gyroplane
Series
9
(All signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 9 No 1. The
Vickers Supermarine “Walrus”
Series 9 No 2. The
Tipsy Two Seater
Series 9 No 3. The
Hawker “Henley”
Series 9 No 4. The
Mosscraft Monoplane
Series 9 No 5. The
“Bristol” Bombay
Series 9 No 6. The
D.H.95 “Flamingo”
Series
10
(December 1938. All signed ‘Howard Leigh’)
Series 10 No 1. The
Fairey F.C.1
Series 10 No 2. The
Handley Page “Harrow”
Series 10 No 3. The
G.A “Cygnet” (mis-spelt as “Gygnet”)
Series 10 No 4. The
Blackburn “Roc”
Series 10 No 5. The
D.H “Moth Minor”
Series 10 No 6. The
Boulton Paul “Defiant”
Variant
Issues of ‘Air League of the British Empire’ Series
A
number of postcard variants exist for the cards that formed the ‘Air League
series’. Postal dates suggest these are later printings. Apart from the
‘British Aeroplanes of Two Wars’ cards, none of these credit the publisher.
I am aware of the following:
1.
Westland
‘Wallace’ – Front of the card has the overprint ‘WESTERN WALLACE’.
Divided Post Card reverse.
2.
The
Monospar S.T.18 ‘Croydon’ – Front of the card has the overprint ‘AVRO
TIGER’. Blank reverse.
3.
The
Handley Page H.P.52 – Front of the card has the overprint ‘HENDON’.
Divided Post Card reverse.
4.
Airspeed
“Envoy” (unsigned)
5.
DeHavilland
DH.86 (unsigned) Postally used 1943.
6.
Hawker
‘Hart’
7.
Westland
‘Wallace’ – Front of the card has the overprint ‘WESTERN WALLACE’.
Illustration
10 – Variant postcard with overprint – ‘Western Wallace’ (Westland!)
8.
The
Handley Page H.P.52 – Front of the card has the overprint ‘HENDON’.
|
9.
The Supermarine Day-And-Night Single Seater Fighter
10.
The Blackburn ‘Roc’
11.
The D.H. ‘Moth Minor’
The set
of 6 cards that had constituted Series 3 was re-issued in 1940 in a paper
envelope under the collective title ‘British Aeroplanes of Two Wars’ at a
price of 1/-. These cards bear
black and white aircraft recognition silhouettes (front, side and below views)
and specifications for each plane by J H Stevens on the reverse. They were
“Published by The Air League of the British Empire, 1A Pall Mall East, London
S.W.1”.
12.
D.H.2
- Reverse depicts Blackburn Skua I
13.
Nieuport XXVII
- Reverse depicts Supermarine Spitfire 1
14.
Spad
- Reverse depicts Boulton Paul Defiant
15.
Bristol Fighter
- Reverse depicts Bristol Blenheim I
16.
Sopwith “Camel”
- Reverse depicts Hawker Hurricane I
17.
S.E.5a
- Reverse depicts Gloster Gladiator
Illustration
11 – Paper envelope for the British Aeroplanes of Two Wars series
Illustration
12 - Reverse of one of the British Aeroplanes of Two Wars series
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