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LICENSING ACTIVITY… MUSEUMS & GALLERIES
RABBiTiNG ON “This has been a slow-burn for us!” confessed Eddie about its signing of a licensing agreement for Peter Rabbit. “So many of the organisations we work with have collections of Beatrix Potter artwork - the V&A, Tate, British Museum, National Trust, and British Library - but due to the complicated copyright situation we just weren’t able to touch them.” Following long-running discussions with Penguin, the licensing agent for Beatrix Potter, “and with Peter Rabbit's 125th anniversary on the horizon, we were delighted to sign a licensing contract for the full spectrum of our products,” confirmed Eddie. The deal continues a strong greeting card legacy of the celebrated Victorian illustrator.
Above: Peter Rabbit has hopped into the Museums & Galleries portfolio.
“Beatrix started by making handmade cards for her family – and her uncle encouraged her to find a publisher,” explained Eddie, with greeting cards being the very first product she licensed her work onto. “Her first work was inspired by her pet rabbit Benjamin Bouncer (coincidently my first pet was also a rabbit called Benjamin!) – and she was paid £6 for the licensing rights. It’s incredibly inspiring to see how her career developed from there!” Focussing on the integrity of the historic artwork, Spring Fair marks M&G’s debut of Peter Rabbit with six everyday fine art cards within its Illustrators range and four Christmas card packs. “This is just the initial launch of a much larger gifts and homewares licensed range which will be unveiled in the months ahead,” reveals Eddie.
Left: One design from the new M&G Angela Harding everyday greeting card collection, which also includes some concertina designs.
decided to broaden her licensing arrangement with M&G. The resultant card collection spans 30 cards in the everyday range, including six diecut cards, all with Angela Harding branded envelopes. The Christmas range, a new Below and right: Angela Harding with poet laureate Simon Armitage in her studio. Angela created the artwork for the cover of Simon’s Blossomise book.
vehicle for Angela’s work comprises 12 pack designs, a large theme box as well as four die-cut Advent calendars. As Eddie highlighted, the last decade has seen “Angela’s career go truly stratospheric” as evidenced by the increased popularity for her work, “collaborations with poets and writers, and lots of media exposure”. In the last year alone, in addition to publishing a seasonal quartet of her own books, Wilding, a book by Isabella Tree about the re-wilding project on the Knepp estate featuring Angela’s illustrations won Children's
Above: Museums & Galleries’ licensing manager Eddie Clarke has been busy.
Non-Fiction Book of the Year at The British Book Awards. On the media front, Angela has appeared on Martha Kearney's This Natural Life programme on BBC Radio 4 and, a sure sign she’s arrived, was a guest on Desert Island Discs, hosted by Lauren Laverne during which she gave a shout out to greeting cards. And continuing the pace, this November, sees A Chronicle of Birds and Beasts, a major exhibition of Angela’s work opening at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, but before that of course there is M&G’s big launch at Spring Fair! “We are so thrilled and humbled that Angela had the confidence in the team at Museums & Galleries to take this very big step and entrust her cards and die cut Advent calendar publishing to us,” said Eddie. “We are so excited to be unveiling the new ranges at Spring Fair!” PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
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