These lithographs were produced after the Second World War to improve the war weary interiors of the teashops under the influence of the directors Felix and Julian Salmon. They commissioned a series of lithographs, designed by professional artists to simply make the surroundings of the teashops more attractive. They became known as The Lyons Lithographs.
However, by deciding also to publish the prints, the Salmons were offering demonstrable support for British artists and, in turn, were consciously establishing Lyons as a corporate patron of the visual arts. Copies of the prints were made available for sale to the general public. Between 1953 and 1955 J. Lyons & Co. produced the last 12 of their lithographs for the teashops, making a total number for forty lithographs printed and published from 1946-1955. Information taken from Tea and a Slice of Art by Charles Batchelor.

Born in 1903, Bawden was a precocious artist even as a teenager, attending classes at the School of Art in Cambridge aged 15 and receiving a coveted Royal Exhibition Scholarship to the RCA. After his first success in collaboration with Eric Ravilious designing the mural for the Morley Working Men’s College refectory in Lambeth in 1928, Bawden’s success continued until the late ‘30s.
Producing work for London Transport, he was made an Official War Artist in 1940. After the war, he consolidated his artistic reputation with a large body of prints, illustrations, posters, catalogues and murals and attained full RA status in 1957. After a decline in popularity, in 1989 Bawden was accorded a major retrospective at the V. and A. Museum. Though too ill to attend, he died a happy man later that same year.
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