| Method | Lithograph with hand colour |
| Artist | Peele, Cecily |
| Published | drawn by Cecily Peele. [Oxford, c.1936] |
| Dimensions | 380 x 380 mm |
| Notes |
A unusual caricature map of central Oxford, highlighting the City's medical and scientific achievements, drawn by Cecily Peele for the 104th meeting of the British Medical Association. The map, the second of her caricature maps of the city's history, focusses on an area only a little larger than the medieval city, from the Broad Walk in the south to the upper end of Park's Road in the north, and from the Castle in the west to the Plain in the east. A large numerical key in the bottom left corner features 43 points of interest, including the colleges and public buildings of the University, the museums, the Press, and relevant Schools. Directions to the Morris motorworks, the hospitals, and the Morris Garage are also shown. The rest of the map is filled with caricatures, including Duncan, curator of the Museums, walking a dodo on a leash, a group of medieval astronomers perched on the wall by Merton fields, a mandrake being extracted from the Physick Garden by a dog (the traditional recommended method for avoiding the plant's lethal cry), a mammoth and an English bear in Magdalen Grove, and a whole host of other famous sons of Oxford's scientific and medical endeavours. In the top right corner of the map, the title is surmounted by the Arms of the City and University, and Robert Hooke, Thomas Linacre, and Roger Bacon act as supporters. A manuscript example of this map, likely the original from which the lithograph was taken, is now in the collection of the University Museums. A second variant, with a dedication to 'Lord Nuffield from F.G. Hobson' in a banner at top centre is in the collections of the National Trust at Nuffield Place. Beatrice Cecilia Peele (1892-1984), usually signing her work as Cecily Peele or BCP, was a British caricaturist, mapmaker, stationer, and illustrator. In 1922 she opened the Alley Workshops on St Giles, Oxford, an emporium of gifts, stationary, toys, and handicrafts aimed predominantly at the University's growing number of female students. While at the Alley Workshops, she designed and published a number of caricatures, cards, and maps, including a caricature Map of Oxford's History with some of her Worthies, as well as a similar smaller scale example focussing on the City's scientific achievements for the British Medical Association. In addition to this, she was also the writer and illustrator of The Encyclopedia of British Bogies, a book of creatures from British folklore. Condition: Vertical and horizontal folds, as issued. Minor foxing to sheet. Blank on verso. |
| Framing | mounted |
| Price | £350.00 |
| Stock ID | 52763 |