Description:[continued]
Every card featured a sketch by John Suffield. The design for 1916 was duplicated for the 1922 card; a block had been prepared with blank spaces in which he could add drawings or text. The earlier Suffield Christmas cards showed a landscape that appears to be somewhere in the uplands of Britain. In the foreground a tree, possibly a silver birch; in the background a lake surrounded by hills; swans on the water, or a stag standing by the tree. The sketches are pleasant, not unlike J.R.R.T.’s The Vale of Sirion in Artist and illustrator [5] in which there are two birches in the foreground, a river below, and hills beyond. This was drawn in 1928. Tolkien may or may not have been inspired by his Suffield grandfather’s drawings; he is certainly the better artist.
Suffield’s card for Christmas 1927 shows a setting different from the others. In the background there are mountains, in the foreground pine-trees. And on the lake below is an island with a small town set on it. It is a scene reminiscent of a Swiss landscape. Jane Neave, John Suffield’s daughter and Tolkien’s aunt, sometimes went on botanising trips to Switzerland [6]. If she sent cards home from such a trip John Suffield may have used one as inspiration for his annual Christmas card.
It is possible that this sketch made a contribution to Tolkien’s story The Hobbit [7]. Christina Scull showed that Tolkien’s understanding of the archaeology, history and culture of the medieval period often contributed to the background of his fiction. [8] Rateliff in his study of The Hobbit [9] notes that Tolkien based some elements of Lake Town on the ancient lake dwellings built on piles in Lake Zurich, Switzerland, discovered when a dry winter lowered the level of the lake. Tolkien told some of story to his children before writing it down. If the children talked about John Suffield’s 1927 card, it may have been a source for the story about Lake Town in The Hobbit.
As the 1928 newspaper report shows, John Suffield continued to be a lively character even in his mid nineties. R. J. Buckley finished his article by reporting that, at 95, John Suffield was still able to climb a ladder to pick his apples, that he was currently at work on a competition offering a thousand pound prize, and that a doctor had forecast that he would live to be a hundred. And, Buckley ended “ Even then, his friends will want to renew the lease.” Although he did not make his century, dying just after his ninety-seventh birthday, he was active to the end. Tolkien believed that his death was ‘because he mowed a large lawn that spring and then sat in the wind without a jacket’. [10] There is a photo of him at his daughter’s house, Bag End, Dormston, Worcestershire on his ninety-seventh birthday. He died just over two weeks later at home in Moseley.
(a) Oliver Suffield was the grandson of John Suffield the older brother of Mabel.
(b) Moseley is not a true rhyme for jocosely as it is pronounced with a hard ‘s’.
References
1. Central Literary Magazine,
2. Birmingham Biography newscuttings Volume 15
3. Tolkien, J.R.R. A Letter from Father Christmas.
4. Carpenter, Humphrey J.R.R.Tolkien A Biography.
5. Hammond,Wayne and Scull, Christina J.R.R. Tolkien Artist & Illustrator
6. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
7. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit.
8. Scull, Christina The Influence of Archaeology and History in
Tolkien’s Work
9. Rateliff,John The History of the Hobbit Part One
10. Hammond, Wayne and Scull, Christina The Lord of the Rings A Reader’s
Companion
The Central Literary Magazine, shelved at L50.7, and the Birmingham Biography newscuttings, at BCol 78, are held in the Archives and Heritage section of Birmingham Central Library.
[Image reference:From a Central Literary Association album of committee members]