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A striking image of the ‘boy who wouldn’t grow up’ is to go under the hammer in London this June. A rare watercolour poster for J.M. Barrie’s stage production of ‘Peter Pan’ by Charles Buchel (active 1895 – 1935), and the first image to depict a ‘Wendy House,’ is to be sold at Bonhams Auctioneers on New Bond Street on 7 June at an estimate of £2,000 – 3,000.

Something of a theatrical revolution took place at the Duke of York theatre on 27 December 1904 as Barrie’s now-legendary play embraced and enchanted an audience of both children and adults. An instant hit, the play ran for 145 performances and was published as a novel in 1911. It has delighted generations ever since, and has been adapted into numerous films, the most recent of which was ‘Neverland,’ which told the story of J.M. Barrie and how he created ‘Peter Pan’ for Sylvia Llewellyn-Davies’s five children.

The play introduced to children everywhere the ‘Wendy House’ – a small play-house named after the young girl spirited away to Neverland with her brothers for a series of remarkable adventures, and Buchel’s painting was the first to immortalise the now-favourite childhood plaything. When Wendy is accidentally shot with a bow and arrow, Peter and the ‘Lost Boys’ decide to build a house around her while she recovers. Buchel’s painted scene captures the scene perfectly:

“(Wendy) herself slept that night in the little house, and Peter kept watch outside with drawn sword, for the pirates could be heard carousing far away and the wolves were on the prowl. The little house looked so cosy and safe in the darkness, with a bright light showing through its blinds, and the chimney smoking beautifully, and Peter standing on guard.” (J.M. Barrie, ‘Peter Pan,’ 1911)

This image dates from circa 1910 and would have been used as a replacement poster for Buchel’s original advertising images for the 1904 production, which depicted Wendy and Peter flying above the rooftops on their way to Neverland. Buchel was an artist who loved the theatre and claimed that he ‘probably had as sitters, more actors and actress than any other living artist.’ He provided artwork for most of the leading actor-managers of the day, and painted theatrical scenes and portraits for illustrated magazines. Indeed, this image was also reproduced as an advertising postcard by Waddingtons.

The poster, executed in watercolour and bodycolour, and measuring 19 by 28 inches, is to sell at Bonhams’ auction of Fine British & Continental Watercolours and Drawings on 7 June 2005.

For more details visit the Bonhams web site.