Barrie, Sir J.M.,and the Llewelyn Davies Family.

the major photographic archive of the `five lost boys', containing many haunting images, and documenting the Llewelyn Davies family from the mid-nineteenth century through the key years of Sylvia and the boys' intimate friendship with J.M. Barrie (their adventures at Black Lake and elsewhere, the background to the creation of Peter Pan) and on to the later years after Sylvia and Arthur's deaths (the boys' time at Eton, in the Army and in the Navy) and the last tragic years for Barrie following George and Michael's deaths.

Like Lewis Carroll, J.M. Barrie was a keen photographer. It is known, for instance, that he descended on the Quiller-Couches in December 1894 with a camera  newly acquired in Switzerland, and put it to use on New Year's Eve to record the exploits of the young Bevil Quiller-Couch (nicknamed "The Pippa") and Barrie's dog Porthos. He later compiled twenty-four of the photographs into a hand-written story for Bevil entitled "The Pippa & Porthos". Similarly, many of the photographs in the present lot were originally collected by barrie in albums and then presented by him to sylvia or other members of the llewelyn davies family. Three of these original albums (two in cloth and one in brown leather), with pencil captions, are included in the lot (one has the ownership signature of Nico Llewelyn Davies at 23 Campden Hill Square). Titles of the albums included the Memorial Album and Sunset Memories, and one was published in a limited edition of  ten copies using the services of the professional photographer Lizzie Caswall Smith at her Oxford Street studios: a copy is preserved at the Beinecke Library at Yale. A noticeable feature of a number of Barrie's photographs is the retouching of the original negative (sometimes present here) in order to erase people or locations about whom and which he did not wish to remember, as though they are being erased from the historical record. This includes, for instance, the blocking out of Gilbert Cannan, who later had an affair with and subsequently married Barrie's wife Mary, in the photograph of George tobogganing at Caux in 1909. Barrie's original photographs of his and the boys' adventures at Black Lake in the "strange and terrible summer" of 1901 (adventures later incorporated into Peter Pan) unfortunately do not survive, except in the reproductions in The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island, which Barrie commissioned from Constable in an edition of two copies: one for himself (now also at the Beinecke) and one for the boys' father Arthur (who subsequently lost his copy in a railway carriage). However, as indicated above, a number of other original photographs of the boys at Black Lake do survive, all taken by Barrie.

j.m. barrie: numerous contemporary photographs, some with members of the Llewelyn Davies family, including Barrie in a school group (1870);  with George Meredith; with his beloved mother Margaret Ogilvy; leaning against a tree and against a door;  semi reclining and inscribed by Barrie "To Sylvia..." (by Frederick Hollyer); posing with the Newfoundland dog Luath in the garden at Leinster Corner (taken by William Nicholson, and used by him as a guide for the costume for Nana in Peter Pan); as Romeo whilst on holiday with Sylvia and the boys in France (1905); with George, Nico and  Michael (various, including some from the famous holidays at Black Lake); with other members of the "Allahakbarries Cricket Team" at Black Lake (1905: featuring A.E.W. Mason, Charles Tennyson, E.V. Lucas and Michael as their mascot); with Nico at Killiecrankie Cottage; with the Duchess of Sutherland and four of his boys at Scourie Lodge (1911); with Michael in fishing gear (1912); in fancy dress (1915); "beating" George and Jack; at Bottancourt, France (1915); playing croquet (with Michael and in a team with Nico);  in pirate fancy dress with the Asquith family; seated on a lawn; standing alone and forlorn (1928); in a group with Nico (c.1928); sitting at a desk; standing in the doorway of his Adelphi Terrace study (c.1917: with relics of the Five Lost Boys and Sylvia scattered about the room, one of the photographs now in the present lot); holding baby Laura, Nico's daughter (1933), as well as in other miscellaneous shots and poses; also a miniature portrait of Barrie's wife Mary Ansell in a fur-lined collar

the llewelyn davies boys: numerous photographs, both individual portraits and group photographs, alone or with other members of the family (including a number of beautiful images of the boys with their mother sylvia), among them: george: as a baby, two of them naked; as a Peter Pan figure, his legs astride; with his pet rabbit and hamster; playing tennis with his mother; tobogganing at Caux with a faceless rider (1909: Gilbert Cannan, Barrie's cuckolder, has been excised from the negative by the playwright); at Eton (and in large school groups); in the cricket team and making his great catch in the Eton-Harrow match at Lord's (1912), damaged; in a smart suit (1914); play-acting at Cambridge; etc.; jack: as a baby; in a school group with George;  with Peter in a wheelbarrow; as a cadet and in a postcard cadet group shot (1908); in naval uniform (1914); by a stream (1919), etc.; michael: as a baby, and later; with Nico by their wigwam; with his mother playing Romeo and Juliet at Dives and seated on a dial; boating on a lake; several from the celebrated holidays with J.M. Barrie at Black Lake between 1901 and 1906  (during one of which Barrie and the boys acted out "The Boy Castaways", the precursor to Peter Pan);  the famous image of michael, aged 6,  dressed as peter pan taken by j.m. barrie in july 1906; in the Eton corps; in breeches and boots (1913); with Jack in a car; in open-neck shirt (1916 ); reclining at Eilean Schona on Argyll during his last summer with Barrie (1920); at Garsington Manor with Dora Carrington and Julian Morrell; etc.; nico: as a baby; as a boy in the garden; wearing a desert hat; in class; in a swimming pool; in Eton uniform; in a formal suit; being held aloft by Barrie's chauffeur, `the splendid Alphonse'; etc.; peter: with a toy rifle; in army uniform (1916);  and at J.M. Barrie's funeral (1937)

together with other group and family photographs including various of the boys, sometimes naked on the beach , playing cricket, at table, romping on the lawn, swimming in the sea, climbing rocks and fishing at Fortingal, Scotland (1906), with their mother at Egerton House (1907), at Dhivach Lodge (1907), playing golf together (1915), at Eton, at a fancy dress tea at Glan Hafren with the Lewis family (1917), and various other shots and locations

other family members: including the Rev. John Llewelyn Davies;  Arthur; Sylvia (numerous, including several beautiful images in the early years of her marriage, one inscribed by Barrie in pencil on verso with directions for enlargement, others with her wearing a black veil after Arthur's death, at Dhivach Lodge and elsewhere); Mary, Harry, Margaret; Mary Compton, and others; the family nanny mary hodgson (one of them on a beach in 1916); and various members of the du maurier family, including George, Emma, Guy (one of them signed), Gerald, May, and Trixie; as well as various places visited or inhabited by the family, including Kirkby Lonsdale Vicarage, Egerton House (several), Dhivach Lodge (with Barrie's extensive inscribed instructions to the printer, in pencil), and Postbridge, Devon (1909)