As they gradually became famous personalities in the art world - exhibitions, articles and opinions on museums and art purchases made them more familiar - Ricketts's and Shannon's names popped up in unexpected quarters.
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| R.D. [Randall Davies], A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense (1912, cover) |
John Aplin found a reference to a limerick in a letter from Charles Ricketts to Sydney Cockerell, dated 10 May 1912. Ricketts quoted the limerick, which he found 'charming' (BL Add MS 52746, f 66).
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| R.D. [Randall Davies], A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense (1912, title page) |
The poem was published in an edition whose author hid behind the initials R.D., but Ricketts knew they stood for Randall Davies and presumably he received A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense as a gift from the author. Randall Robert Henry Davies (1866-1946) was a major collector of old masters, drawings and English watercolours, who as a young man befriended Herbert Horne, became his executor, and edited the catalogue of Horne's art collection. He wrote several books about artists, Chelsea architecture, caricatures, and watercolours. Portraits of Davies were painted by James Kerr-Lawson and Glyn Philpot (who had also portrayed the artist Gladys Miles, who later married Davies) and, additionally, there is a bronze buste by Romano Romanelli. In 1930, Davies was selected by the Trustees of the Melbourne National Gallery to buy paintings in London.
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James Kerr-Lawson, portrait of Randall Davies [Chelsea Library, London] |
The manager of the Vale Press, Charles Holmes, knew Davies, and Ricketts may have known Davies as well.
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| R.D. [Randall Davies], A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense (1912, page 139) |
A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense was published in 1912 by Macmillan & Co. Ltd. The old-fashioned spelling of the title was chosen to match the woodcuts collected by the author, which were about four hundred years old at the time.
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| R.D. [Randall Davies], A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense (1912, poem on page 138) |
Most limericks are about 'an old fellow called Cox', 'a young housemaid at Ashdown' and 'a young lady called Mabel'. Only three actual persons appear in it. The third (page 138) is a sportsman mentioned in a limerick about an amateur golfer who fears he shall 'never beat Vardon'. Henry Vardon (1870-1937) was a famous golfer from Jersey.
Two persons more familiar to us are mentioned on page 126:
There was a young Lady of Annan,Whose father-in-law was a Canon;
But she gave up the Church
For artistic research,
And consorted with Ricketts and Shannon.
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| R.D. [Randall Davies], A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense (1912, poem on page 126) |
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| R.D. [Randall Davies], A Lyttel Booke of Nonsense (1912, page 127) |