1921 Genuine antique print, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, fairy, gilt framed art

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888–1960), Dr. Teddy-Bear at Home, 1921 — an original period black-and-white book plate from The Enchanted Forest, published in London by A. & C. Black, presented under glass with a wide cream mount in an ornate gilt timber frame. The 1921 first edition contained fifteen black-and-white illustrations alongside sixteen tipped-in colour plates. A wonderfully whimsical example of Outhwaite’s fairy-world imagery, combining intricate pen work, deep velvety blacks and playful domestic detail as a fairy hangs washing beside the industrious Dr Teddy-Bear.

27cm x 22cm frame

16cm x 12cm artwork 

Artist biography: Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888–1960) was a Melbourne-born illustrator, painter and draughtswoman and is regarded as one of Australia’s most important early fantasy illustrators. Raised in a literary and artistic family, she began publishing illustrations while still a teenager and frequently collaborated with her sister, writer Annie Rattray Rentoul. Her lavishly illustrated Elves and Fairies of 1916 established her reputation, and following successful exhibitions in London and Paris she entered into a publishing relationship with A. & C. Black. The Enchanted Forest appeared in 1921 with text by her husband Grenbry Outhwaite and became one of the defining publications of her career. Her distinctive combination of European fairy-tale imagery with Australian flora, fauna and imaginative characters made her internationally recognised during the 1920s, and her original drawings and watercolours are now represented in major Australian collections.