Harold H. Piffard Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Illustrator, b. 1867 - d. 1938

Harold Hume Piffard (10 August 1867 – 17 January 1938) was a British artist and illustrator, and one of the first British aviators.

Harold Piffard was born in Marylebone to Charles Piffard (4 July 1829 – 2 July 1884 and his wife Emily, née Hume (1837 – 1911), the daughter of James Hume, a barrister and Magistrate at Calcutta. They had married in Calcutta on 1 June 1858. Charles had received his BA at Clare College, Cambridge in 1848, was called to the Bar on 17 November 1854, and was awarded an MA from Clare College on 30 June 1856. Charles was Clerk of the Crown in the High Court of Calcutta. Piffard's four eldest brothers had all been born in India.

Piffard died on 17 January 1938; he is buried in Old Chiswick Cemetery, as is his first wife Helena.[19] His second wife Eleanor survived him for nearly 20 years.

Piffard painted a wide variety of subjects in both oils and watercolour. Piffard started his work as an illustrator with contributions to periodicals including The Strand Magazine, The Illustrated London News and The Penny Pictorial Magazine. He began to illustrate books in 1895, eventually illustrating over a hundred novels by authors including Frances Hodgson Burnett, Guy Boothby, Harry Collingwood, Mrs. Henry Wood, Richard Marsh, Max Pemberton, and J. M. Neale, as well as a series of classics for Collins including works by Thackeray, Dickens, and George Eliot.