An original publicity illustration for the shop. Coloured print. St Nicholas.

160mm x 115mm (image size)  + wide margins. Slight crease

Mary Wheelhouse was both a successful artist and illustrator, and a maker and seller of toys, particularly of wooden dolls. She studied at the Scarborough School of Art in the mid 1890s, during which time she began to exhibit at The Royal Academy, and she went on to attend the Academie Delecture in Paris. By 1899 she was sharing a house with three other artists in London - 3 Pomona Studios, 111 New King's Road - and exhibiting regularly in London, the provinces and the Paris Salon. A competition win led to commissions as a book illustrator, and particularly to a long working relationship with the publisher George Bell.

In 1915 Wheelhouse teamed up first with fellow artist Louise Jacobs, and then later with sculptor A.B. Ellis, to make a range of wooden toys, and she had a shop, Pomona Toys, at 64 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea from around 1916 until 1927. After this time the shop moved to 14 Holland Street, with a workshop at 28 Gunter Grove, and it continued trading until the outbreak of World War II.

The company supplied the likes of Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, and Liberty's, and its most prestigious commission was the supply of toys to the royal family, including miniature items for Queen Mary's Dolls' House, such as a tiny merry-go-round for the Day Nursery.