Stunning Original Painting of a Syrian Bear at Regent's Park Zoo. You can just see "Regent's Park Zoo" erased to the lower border.

Painted on stiff paper that has been pasted at the corners to green card, the painted area measures approximately 2.75 x 5.5 inches (7 x 14 cms).  Beautifully painted and far nicer than my photos show, the colour and detail is stunning, it's incredible how they have got such a realistic image into such a small painting. 

This was intended to be used for a cigarette card, but it was never actually issued.  It would have been part of a set of cards issued by W.D. & H.O. Wills and the title for the series would have been "Zoo Friends".  We have a number of original paintings from the set and they are all stamped "Artist Department, 5th October 1939".  Perhaps the publication of the series was delayed and then cancelled due to the war?  

Provenance: This came from Mardon, Son & Hall of Bristol, who were famous for dealing with the art and printing of the tobacco trade.  The business flourished after being set up in the Victorian era and was able to employ the best artists available.  The detail and quality of their work is incredible.  A team of artists would work for several months producing up to fifty hand painted pieces centred around a certain theme and then present it to the client, often Wills Tobacco company who would then authorise the reproduction.