Geo Ham - Illustrator of books!

As his popularity grew and his ability to express an image with just a few lines on paper was recognised, Geo Ham became increasingly the artist of 'choice' for many authors & publishers (nothing sold a book quicker than Geo Ham artwork!).So this is just a few lines to explore the more 'commonly found' editions.

The image at the head of this 'blog' is probably one of the 'nicer' images (I use the term 'nicer' rather than 'better'!), whilst L'automobile notre amie was primarily aimed at a younger audience, the artwork by Geo Ham & Pierre Rousseau contained within certainly make it a 'must have' for the 'older collector'! Some of the illustrations contained within it show different style of Geo Ham work - for example this illustration comparing organs of the human body with the engine of a car!

Another great book illustrated by Geo Ham - From the same publishers (Mame - Maison Mame 6 rue Madame, VI, Paris) Is Grand Raids D'Avions. Once again Geo Ham demonstrates a very graphic style of art, without losing any of the integrity of the image. These 2 books are throughly recommended and should be found in any great library of motoring art & literature.

Whilst undoubtably appreciated by the young French audience, Geo Ham was also popular with some of the more 'heavyweight' authors and publishers - Perhaps one of the more sought after of these volumes is Louis Castex book detailing his flight around the world: Mon Vol autour du monde, this was a snapshot of highlights of a global trip, which clearly needed to be brought to life with illustrations - and who better to turn to than Geo Ham!

Given his wartime work, and his commissions for Aeropostal Geo Ham was very familiar with aviation (and there are numerous aeroplane images produced by him) It should be no surprise that when Marcel Migeo was looking for an illustrator for his book about ariel battles, the first name on his list was Geo Ham: Batailles dans le ciel (Editions Colbert 1943) and Geo Ham is listed in the frontispiece of the book as: Peintre officiel du Ministere de l'air not only does the book contain very good full page colour illustrations by Geo Ham, but also. in common with the Labric book (24 Heures) Geo Ham has added some charming little vignette sketches at the end of each chapter.

When the ACO wanted to publish an anniversary book celebrating 50 years of the race at Le Mans, they turned to Geo Ham to illustrate the book/magazine - a subject and location very familiar to any 'follower' of Geo Ham. In good condition these volumes are very hard to find, as they were produced in a magazine format - however we are very lucky at The Mabileau to have a pristine copy that was hardbound from new - not only is this an informative read about Le Mans - it also has splendid Geo Ham illustrations throughout - including the adverts at the back: Cinquantenaire de L'automobile club de L'ouest

Whilst on the subject of Le Mans (& not 'doing the Labric book' which will have a blog all of it's own) it would be remiss not to include the supplement for L'action automobile et Touristique - one GH's magazine clients, this was a free supplement given by the magazine in 1956, a sort of 'runners & riders' guide - the front cover by Geo Ham is fantastic, produced in a sepia tone colour it is very evocative of the time and is a 'Geo Ham classic image'.

Geo Ham's work with Le Mans will be the topic of a future blog encompassing the posters and programmes along with the advertisments and publicity material - the 'theme' of this blog is work with books and publishers and I will try to stick on topic!

There were a series of 'travel guides' produced by the ACO and no need to guess who got the call to produce the artwork! These were produced throughout the 1930's and each year the cover was artwork by Geo Ham- this is the 1931 edition.

Geo Ham was a very busy man in the 1930's and many company's called for his services (again advertising will be a future topic), to illustrate more of his book(let) work, he was engaged by the aerospace company Avions Potez to illustrate their company bulletin in 1936 which was an information booklet about their factory and services - the aviation theme was right up Geo's runway, this is an example of the bulletin featuring Geo Ham's work.

Hopefully this blog will give an insight into some of Geo Ham's 'other work!' There is a vast catalogue to work through including event posters and adverts so please keep following the blogs as we add more about this prolific and versatile artist. (As a heads-up, there may be a book on it's way!)