Vtg Rowland Emett Signed H.M.S. PUSSIEWILLOW 1 A Celestrial Cats' Cradle Ex Cond

Signed by the artist:  R. Emett in blue ink with a blue line beneath the signing....

Written on the poster:

H. M.S. PUSSIEWILLOW  

A Celestrial Cats' Cradle,  crewed by those intrepid travellers, The Owl & The Pussiecat,  in their rose strewn pea-green boat.  

The whole proclaiming that age old truism:  "Pro bono pussiquet gloy floribunda" 

(Stick to pussiecats and roses and all's well) 

About the artist:  

In 1947 his cartoons came to life on the stage of the Globe Theatre, London, in "Between the Lines", a scene for Laurier Lister's revue Twopence Coloured, with Max Adrian as an eccentric signalman at Friars Fidgeting Signal Box. In 1951, at the Festival of Britain, his most famous steam locomotive, Nellie, was made into a copper and mahogany kinetic sculpture and with two other locomotives, Neptune and Wild Goose, was one of the festival’s most popular attractions, operating the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway. There was a fatality when two trains collided. At this time he was living in Cornwall and working in a studio in a boat-loft at Polperro; later he returned to West Cornwall before settling for the rest of his life at Ditchling, in Sussex.

In 1953 Malcolm Muggeridge became editor of Punch and began systematic changes, but Emett continued to publish his work there, albeit less frequently. After a spread in Lifemagazine on 5 July 1954, his work was much in demand in the United States.

He turned more and more to designing and supervising the building of what he called his "things" – always with silly names such as The Featherstone-Kite Openwork Basketweave Mark Two Gentleman’s Flying Machine, two copies of which exist, one of which was displayed in a glass case in the Merrion Centre, Leeds, the other on permanent display at the Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In the mid-1960s he was commissioned by Honeywell to create a mechanical computer, which he namedThe Forget-Me-Not Computer. In 1968 he designed the elaborate inventions of Caractacus Potts (played by Dick Van Dyke) for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

In 1973 his water-powered musical clock, The Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator, was installed on the lower floor of the Victoria Centre, Nottingham, and is still at work there. When commissioned, it played Rameau's Gigue en rondeau II from the E-minor suite of his Pièces de Clavecin when striking the hour.

The Cats Cradle Pussiewillow III clock was commissioned by Basildon New Town and inaugurated by Michael Bentine on 7 August 1981. It is on display at Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon.

His larger works, such as Emettland, went on extended tours, ending up in prestigious venues such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The Ontario Science Centre in Toronto has a collection of about ten Emett creations and every December displays the restored working pieces, usually under the title "Dream Machines".

The Mid-America Science 

When asked how he came up with his strange designs, Emett remarked, "It is a well known fact that all inventors get their first ideas on the back of an envelope. I take slight exception to this, I use the front so that I can incorporate the stamp and then the design is already half done."^[3]

In 1978 he was awarded an OBE

He died on 13 November 1990 in a Sussex nursing home.

We have done our research and can not find this poster on the web.

We are the original owners.  

It was a gift to us in the 1970's from the owner of The Coach House Gallery in Indian Village,  Detroit, Michigan.  The owner was from England and it is our understanding that the artist and the owner were indeed friends.  

Megan Terese Photography

Please message with any questions or concerns.