Fred Walmsley's Pierrots, Blackpool

HELEN BRADLEY (1900-1979) Fred Walmsley's Pierrots, Blackpool signed 'HELEN BRADLEY' and with a fly (lower right), signed again, inscribed and dated '''Oh, the tide is in''. George and I had/so looked forward to playing on the Sands on/our final day at Blackpool, but Mother said/'Never mind, we'll go on the Pier and see if/Fred Walmsleys Pierrots are there,/and there they were just beginning their/show with a new song. It was:/In the year nineteen hundred and nine/''We shall all have a jolly fine time./for the World, you see/will belong to me/in the year nineteen hundred and nine!/How I glowed, how I felt something/wonderful was going to happen, and in/a hope of expectancy I ate one of Pyes Ices/while Mother, the Aunts and Grandma/drank a cup of Sandows Cocoa and the year/was 1908./Helen Layfield Bradley 1972.' (on the artist's label attached to the backboard) watercolour and gouache on paper 14 ½ x 21 ½ in. (36.8 x 54.6 cm.) Executed in 1972.