Chloë Preston (1887-1969)
Chloë Preston (christened Beatrice Zoë Preston) was born at Moreby Hall, near Bishopsthorpe, Yorkshire, on 4 December 1887. The daughter of a wealthy landowner, she was educated privately at home, and probably developed her own artistic talents, her country house childhood informing much of her subject matter. In 1910, she wrote and illustrated her first book, The Peek-a-Boos, introducing the podgy, saucer-eyed child characters for which she is best known. The book was such a success that her uncle, Bernard Home Thomson took out a registration for the ‘Peek-a-Boo’ trademark for her books and toys (1911) and a design label (1913). During the First World War, she did some hospital work, but still managed to complete fourteen books, many with texts by May Byron.
In 1916, she produced The Chunkies introducing a second set of characters, which were drawn to look like wooden toys and soon encouraged spin offs. Following the end of the war, she moved to London, settling in Chelsea, and extending her range of interests. During the 1920s, she designed postcards, prints and advertising posters, and sold her original drawings at a solo show at the Gieves Gallery in Old Bond Street (January 1923). The death of her father in 1924 radically increased her prosperity, so that she left London and eventually settled in Monte Carlo. Continuing to work into the 1930s, she lived into the 1960s, dying in Paris on 12 December 1969.
Further reading
Mary Hillier, Chloë Preston and the Peek-a-Boos, Shepton Beauchamp: Richard Dennis, 1998
