May is living up to its reputation as the month of merriment as we look forward to an opportunity for meeting and greeting our customers, and give three cheers for the birthday of one of art's funniest and best-loved characters. There are sparkling socialites and Downton-inspired holiday glamour, and a final reminder about jubilation celebrations. Read on for more details guaranteed to put a spring in your step.

Image Marketplace

We feel a fanfare of trumpets or a drum roll is required for our first topic, which is...we will be attending Image Marketplace this month, the first in-person event for the picture industry since the pre-pandemic age. Exciting isn't it?

Image Marketplace will take place at Judge's Court Rooms, Browns, St. Martin's Lane from 9:30 am to 5pm on 18th May, and is a chance to see and speak to real (as opposed to virtual) picture people about any type of picture matters as well as attend seminars. Goodness me, there's even a free buffet! We're at table 19 where Luci will be on hand so do drop by to discuss any projects we can help with, pick up some Mary Evans goodies, or simply say 'hello'. You can register for Image Marketplace here and we look forward to seeing lots of you there.

Rock Chicks

We love the way Tatler magazine has used portraits of society beauties from original issues of the magazine, in the Style Eyes feature in their June edition, draping the likes of Lady Pamela Smith, the Hon. Nancy Mitford and Lady Mary Ashley-Cooper with contemporary jewels from sparkly stone purveyors, Dior, Chanel, Boucheron, Cartier and De Beers. One of photography's most creative talents, we own the copyright to Yevonde's extensive archive of black & white photography, whether from negatives in the original archive, or images published in The Tatler and other magazines, and are continuing to add new finds to our online collection.

Watch out for more news about Madame Yevonde over the coming months and in the meantime, you can peruse some of her greatest hits here.

Happy Birthday Heath Robinson

A significant birthday anniversary takes place this month as William Heath Robinson (1872-1944), illustrator, cartoonist and celebrated 'gadget king' was born 150 years ago on the 31st May. Born into a family of engravers, Heath Robinson studied at the Royal Academy schools and had ambitions to be a landscape painter. But instead he joined his two elder brothers as a book illustrator during the golden age of children's publishing and afterwards began to contribute humorous drawings to the illustrated press, first to The Tatler and then, with great success, to The Sketch from 1906.

Heath Robinson recounted in his memoirs how he was, "fairly launched on my career as a humorous artist" by editor Bruce Ingram's decision to publish his work. His cartoons for The Sketch, The Tatler, The Strand, The Bystander and The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, all magazines in our archive, were to seal his reputation for crazy and convoluted contraptions, offering absurdly complicated solutions for what were essentially quite simple problems.

We have some of the best examples of Heath Robinson's art spanning his earliest pictures from the Edwardian era to his WWII cartoons done shortly before his death. Enjoy some wacky gadgetry here, and if you'd like to find out more about Heath Robinson and his world, read 'It's All A Bit Heath Robinson' (illustrated entirely from our archive) or visit the wonderful Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner.

Riviera reverie

Downton Abbey: A New Era is currently showing at cinemas and whether you've seen the film or not, we were interested to note that the Crawleys et al decamp to the fashionable French Riviera to stay in the Dowager Lady Crawley's inherited villa. The Riviera developed as a winter holiday destination for well-heeled British, Russian and American visitors during the nineteenth century, but its vogueish reputation accelerated during the interwar years when King Sol ruled the Cote D'Azur and socialites, stage stars, billionaires and princes were followed around Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo by photographers as they swam, sunbathed, and sipped cocktails through the summer months. Magazines like The Tatler and The Bystander were on hand to record this glamorous existence for their readers, while other collections we represent, such as Onslow's Auctioneers, offer glorious posters advertising the delights of this exclusive stretch of the Mediterranean coast.

Click here to see our selection of pictures.

A Jubilant Reminder

With the UK celebrating the first ever royal Platinum Jubilee, it's no surprise that the news stands are full of special issues commemorating Her Majesty's 70 years on the throne. The Illustrated London News, the world's first illustrated paper, launched 180 years ago in May 1842, was a pioneer of so-called 'special numbers' and in particular lavishly produced souvenir editions marking the jubilees of Queen Victoria, King George V and those of our present Queen. Still going strong today as a publisher and digital content agency, ILN has carried on this tradition into the 21st century and this year have published a superb bookazine to mark the Platinum Jubilee, filled with a rich mix of imagery taken from the ILN archive housed and managed here at the library.

At the moment we are helping clients on a daily basis with requests on a royal theme, with the nine magazines comprising the ILN archive often being the first place we turn to, whether we're searching for an 1897 Diamond Jubilee cover or the 1961 royal tour of West Africa. If you're still working on projects in the run up to the jubilee celebrations at the end of this month, do get in touch and we'll be delighted to help.