Lot 23: Claud Lovat Fraser (British, 1890-1921) Design for a Toy,"

Design for a Toy," illustration for the unpublished work, A Book of Simple Toys (1917).
With Claud Lovat Fraser 1890-1921 (London: d'Offay Cooper Gallery, 1971).
Watercolor and ink.
23.2 x 14.4cm (9 1/8 x 5 11/16in).

Lovat Fraser was a highly versatile British artist who designed everything from stage and costume designs to bookplates. He was also a highly gifted book illustrator who worked in a slightly archaic manner inspired by popular English art of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He enlisted in the British army during World War I and was one of the few officers who survived the Battle of Loos in 1915. He was sent back to Great Britain after being gassed and suffering from shellshock, and eventually died from the irreparable damage to his lungs.