Pearl Binder sketchbooks

Thirteen sketchbooks and three loose leaves of annotated sketches in pen, watercolour and pencil, notes and diary entries recorded by writer and artist Pearl Binder during her travels in the United States, Sri Lanka, India, China, France and Poland. Also enclosed is a one page listing the items in this accession.

Please contact enquiries@horniman.ac.uk to arrange viewing these records.

Pearl (Polly) Binder (1904-1990), was born in Salford in the East End. Her father was a Russian Jewish tailor, Jacob Binder. She had an incredibly versatile career being a writer, artist, radio and television personality, and an expert on costume and stained glass. In 1937, she was involved in children?s programmes in the very earliest days of television broadcasting. She was an adventurous traveller, travelling and writing about China in particular. She was an advocate of the pearly kings and queens, designing a pearly mug for Wedgwood, and an accomplished sculptor and stained glass artist, who created a series of windows for the House of Lords. She married Frederick Elwyn Jones on the 28 August 1937, and couple had three children together. When he was made a life peer in 1974, she became Lady Elwyn-Jones.