Curating Cambridge’s rights management division has been appointed by The Ronald Searle Cultural Estate to represent Searle’s Cats – a collection of over 50 original feline illustrations by the internationally renowned British artist.
ArtPress Publishing is the first partner to join the licensing programme and will launch its range of greeting cards and notecard wallets at Top Drawer next week (12-14 January).
The range features a curated selection of Searle’s fiendishly funny, sometimes poignant, satirical cat drawings to suit many an occasion, as well as dedicated Christmas products. Searle’s black ink characters and accentuating use of colour works brilliantly across the range and will stand out when merchandised in-store.
Recognised as one of the greatest satirical graphic artists of the 20th century, Searle’s passion for drawing was encouraged and cultivated in his native Cambridge, with his fascination with cats emerging in the 1960s.
Searle’s Cats was first published in 1967, with its popularity leading to subsequent reprints and publications including Ronald Searle’s Big Fat Cat Book in 1982. Searle’s Cats also gained international recognition, gracing the covers of magazines such as The New Yorker, Life and TV Guide.
“ArtPress has developed an exceptional greetings range and we look forward to sharing its success with existing and new partners across multiple categories to build a strong, evergreen licensing programme,” commented Hannah Aspey, head of licensing at Curating Cambridge.
Linzi Russell-Watson, director at ArtPress, continued: ”It has been an utter privilege to work alongside Curating Cambridge, to launch a fabulous collection of illustrations by Ronald Searle, featuring some of the most expressive cats you will ever see. From what might be the original Grumpy Cat, to a Balding cat in an unsuitable wig… they are the real cats’ whiskers.”
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