Roy Nockolds

Roy Nockolds (1911-1979) is probably the greatest of the British motoring artists - although this is only our opinion here at The Mabileau and I can hear the Crosby fans screaming at me from here!

Roy was a great combination of passion and talent. He is the "stand out artist" who made motoring art accesible for the masses and his work stands the test of time -as relevant today as it was mid-century. Nockold's first 'published works' began appearing in the motoring magazines of the 1920's & 30's - Motor Sport, Autocar & The Motor were regular publications to utilise his talents, although his artisitc career began much earlier than this, his brother Harold (The magic of a name - author) recounts "The first drawing I remember Roy doing was an aviation scene - a Zeppelin being attacked by a biplane. He was 5 years old and it was his way of passing the time during an air raid during World War1! "

After the war Roy became more interested in racing cars than aeroplanes and was a regular visitor to Brooklands in the early 20's - We have one of these early works at the gallery titled "1st British Grand Prix - Brooklands 1926" - bearing in mind that Roy was only 15 years old at the time, this shows the talent of an accomplished artist!

Although in a poor state when we acquired it we considered that this work was well worthy of a complete restoration- including the mountcard which we consider to be an integral part of the piece. (Lisu incredibly managed to peel the top layer of paper and remount it onto acid-free conservation card! ) Roy's notes are on the back of the picture "Property of R A Nockolds - Wallingford" and we have photographed these notes on acetate and they are mounted on the back of the frame. This is a special piece.

We have an interest in Nockold's motoring artwork, but it should be noted that he was also a very, very good landscape painter - particularly involving dogs and rural landscapes - these are fantastic in their own genre, but for the sake of specialism we will not dwell on them in this blog, but whilst we are 'off-topic' it is worth mentioning that during WW2 Nockolds worked for the air ministry and is credited with 'designing' the camouflage for RAF fighter planes - in particular the painting of the undercarriage in white as Roy had noted that it is harder to see a white owl at night than a dark one! He worked with 151 Mosquito squadron to perfect this camouflage - A little known fact for the pub-quiz team - Thank me later.

Back to the motoring art..... As a talented amateur photographer Roy had a custom of photographing all of his completed works before entrusting them to the magazine or commissioning client and so built up an extensive photo library of his own work, (this is particularly relevant later on in this Nockolds article) occasionally 'original' Nockolds photographs surface and these are very rare and desirable in their own right, we have a couple at the gallery - but are always on the look-out for more!

This is one of Nockolds own photographs of his work "Louis Chiron - Bugatti" and is signed in pencil - these can often be overlooked as 'just photographs' but in context they are very desirable.

They are many published pieces of Nockolds work and I haven't seen a bad one yet, however the Nockolds that one is likely to encounter is probably going to be one published by 'Thackwell & Co. Monte Carlo' and this piece of The Nockolds history deserves further exploration:

Roy Nockolds & Thackwell & Co. Monte Carlo

As previously touched upon, Roy Nockolds always photographed his finished work and stored these images on glass plates. On his death in 1979 his studio contents were sold and amongst the items to be sold were the original glass plate images of his work - being a very adept cameraman these glass plates were perfectly suitable for making prints - a fact that was picked up by Kerry Thackwell (Brother of racing driver Mike Thackwell) - and so begins the story of the 'Thackwell - Nockolds'.

Kerry Thackwell purchased over 220 of the Nockolds glass plate images and by doing so gained the copyright and the ability to reproduce 'new' prints from them. The archive effectively became a record of motor sport in the 20th C. and from this archive approx. 30 were reproduced by Kerry, it has to be said that although this was considered to be a commercial venture, no expense was spared in the production of these prints - the quality is brilliant - they were produced using an original 1930's offset lithograph proofing press, onto 100% long cotton fibre Sanders Waterford paper - the finest watercolour paper available - attention to detail that Roy would have approved of! Each litho was sold hand numbered and stamped with the Thackwell & Co. seal. Where it added to the image, each was hand-coloured with impressive attention to detail, the colours of drivers overalls and markings on the cars was researched in order to make the prints as authentic as possible. There were 2 commonly used sizes - these are the larger 900mm wide x 650mm high (poster size) and the smaller 350mm x 250mm 'picture size'. The most frequently used colourist was Nicky Hayley and quite often these are signed in pencil. The print runs varied in size with the most common being runs of 100 - 150 although some uncoloured runs (Black & White) did run to 850. At the time of issue the lithos were sold in a price range from £250 - £4000 and this seems to have offered 'good value' at the time. The market for 'prints' has always been considered to be lesser value than original artwork - quite rightly, but........these Thackwell prints are so well executed that the value margin should be very small - this has certainly been recognised by some collectors and in our opinion they should be held in similar esteem to some original artworks by 'lesser' (and we use this term advisably) artists. By good fortune The Mabileau was able to acquire a quantity of Thackwell / Nockolds - mostly number 1's of editions and we are proud to be able to offer these to collectors and museums - please take a look through our gallery where we have featured some that are available to purchase.

There was also a project to produce a portfolio of Nockolds work as a bound book and a few copies were made - This was to be entitled 'Visions of Speed' and was designed around the Thackwell 'reproductions'. It is a shame that these were not produced in numbers as they would have been a great record of Nockolds work - We have a pre-production unbound copy without text at the gallery and consider it to be 'treasure'!

Nockolds 'legacy'

It is undoubtable that Nockolds had a big influence on British motoring art & artists - this is probably best summed up by one of the other great british motoring artists Michael Turner:

"To a newcomer tramping the Grand Prix circuits abroad in the lates '50s, it was comforting, and not a little impressive, to round a corner out in the country and find Roy set up with his easel and stool by the side of the track, producing an 'on the spot' painting immortalising his heroes as they sped past at arm's length"

Nockolds was considered to be a true 'gentleman' and by contemporary accounts always had time for new young artists and encouraged & tutored whenever he could, so, not only a fine artist, but also an inspiration for others. Truly a great in the world of art & in particular motoring art - We cannot praise the man and his work highly enough and would encourage all to seek out the work and legacy of this great champion of motor racing.