Reindeer

One of Searle's long running 'characters' was the reindeer which he used to great comic effect on multiple occasions. A relative of Searle's similarly pathetic horse motif, the reindeer says everything about the human condition.

 Young Elizabethan magazine, January 1959

 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog

 This later cover was used as the basis for this promotional snow globe.

...and here's a version of the image sans reindeer

Holiday magazine

Christmas card design 1992

This piece is in the art collection of the British Parliament 'The ancient and rather touching ceremony of proceeding towards Christmas' 2009

More Christmas ephemera here

Young Elizabethan

When Searle's first wife, Kaye Webb, took over as editor of (Collins) Young Elizabethan magazine she enlisted her husband to provide artwork.  Searle designed covers and Nigel Molesworth debuted in the magazine.

This must be the finest designed magazine for children ever published.  Does anybody remember it or have any copies? It's incredibly hard to find these days.

Thanks to Merfyn O. Jones for the scans

Searle would later rework this snoozing reindeer for a Marcus Neiman Christmas catalogue cover.

'I must be a brave little boy.

 I mustn't be afraid to go

 down.  It's only for a year.

 I must be brave . . . '

 Some of the illustrations, such as that above, were much more naturalistic, demonstrating Searle's incredible range.  Note the scratching into the ink on the wall behind the boy.

 Kaye Webb and Ronald Searle famously collaborated on 'Refugees'- a book recording the plight of Europeans displaced since the war. They featured it in 'Young Elizabethan'. (The drawings also appeared in Punch magazine).

'Thoughts by Nigel M./Ye English (Well, some ready to be stuffed)./Young Elizabethan Magazine.'

Nigel Molesworth: Young Elizabethan, "You wouldn't hav thort a pair of bloomers would make all that difference."
signed, dated and inscribed as title 'Nigel/Molesworth/Young Elizabethan/Ronald Searle 1956.'
pen and black ink.

An original illustration for Molesworth: Whizz for Atomms, page 11. Published by Max Parrish, London, 1956; and Molesworth, page 215, Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics, London, 1999

Molesworth: How to be a young Elizabethan...Come here bend over
signed and dated 'Ronald Searle 1956' (lower right) and inscribed 'Molesworth/How to be a young Elizabethan./...Come here bend over.' (lower left)
pencil and pen and black ink, 10¾ x 13¼in. 

An original illustration for Whizz for Atomms, London 1956, p.15.





An Act of Charitee signed and dated 'Ronald Searle-/1956' (lower left) and inscribed 'Page 17/Nigel/Molesworth/Young Elizabethan? An Act of Charitee' (upper left), further inscribed 'Inspiration'/'The Gift'/'Doubt'/'Exploration'/'Despair'
pencil and pen and ink, 15½ x 10¾in.

An original illustration for Whizz for Atomms, Max Parrish, London, 1956, p.17.