Sale gives illustrative insight into man of many talents

HE HAS been described as an artist, designer, teacher, landowner, ballet dancer, conscientious objector and in his own words, "that obsessed and demented being, a collector". Now a selection of Charles William Stewart's illustrations, valued at £5,000, are to go on sale at an auction on Wednesday.

Alex Dove, book specialist at the Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull, said: "Stewart's interest in historical costume is greatly reflected in his work.

"To aid his illustrating, he bought a dressmaker's dummy, supplanted eventually by a good 19th-century life-size lay model, named Rosie, able to take almost any pose."

Stewart was a student at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting in London while working as a dancer at Covent Garden.