Ernest was born in Islington, London on 22 April 1882 to parents Alfred Henry Aris, a lithographic artist, and Emily Juliet Aris n?e Wright. His brother Albert was born a year later.
Their parents moved to Bradford where Ernest attended the Technical College and School of Art, and earned his diploma (1900) under the tutorship of Charles Stephenson. Later at the Royal College of Art in London he studied under Moira & Chambers.
He began his career as a portrait artist and an art teacher, subsequently writing and illustrating childrens books. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym 'Robin A Hood'. He also illustrated seaside postcards using signature 'EARIS'.
Ernest A Aris
In the 1930's lead figures of domestic and zoo animals were given away with tins of Cadburys Cocoa. The range was gradually extended from an initial release of 15 models to a total of 32, and today, as in the years from 1934 to 1939 they are highly collectable. These brightly clad, hand made and hand painted characters soon captured the imagination of children young and old and as a sales promotion exercise it was a huge success for Cadbury Ltd. It was just as successful for the toy manufacturers William Britain Ltd whose production lines were maintained at full capacity.
As part of the sales promotion cartoon characters featuring the cococubs adventures appeared in numerous national newspapers, as well as children's and family magazines. The Cococubs were launched quietly onto the unsuspecting world on 26 September 1934 in a small advertisement.
The interesting part form a LADYBIRD BOOK collector's point of view is that one of the Cococub characters turns out to be none other than our old friend Tasseltip!
By offering his work at numerous galleries and exhibitions he hoped to build up a reputation as an artist whose work would be collected by connoisseurs and collectors. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.
Thanks to Dudley Chignall for the above information.
All
the Ernest A Aris
books listed below are currently for sale
on our website - we may have some others in
stock so please ask if you don't see the title
you're looking for.
