I am trying to sort through the art collection of a friend who is retiring, and among the things he has are six drawings that came from the British American Bank Note Company (BABN), some or all of which seem to have been draft vignettes for the vignette on the reverse of the 1937 Canadian $10 bill or the 1935 $2 bill. None of these drafts was actually used on currency. The first one is by Paul Gornason, who was a fairly well known Canadian artist:
Here is the image that was actually used for the bill:
Currency experts have been interested by the draft vignette for the bill by H.P. Dawson:
It seems to me that the parallels between this and the Goranson sketch are rather remarkable. In addition to the thematic parallels, there is an B1 in the left corner. In the draft sketch for the vignette that was actually used there is found "B19". (The common opinion is that this says 819, but I'm confident this is not correct.)
Here is another of the drawings, one that is unsigned:
The thematic parallels are, again, obvious. Shipping on one side and rail on the other, like the vignette that was chosen.
The third image was drawn by George Fanais, another Canadian artist who worked for several decades for the BABN:
But in reading about Fanais (in, for instance, the 1981 Glebe Report, which is online) I find that he graduated from college in 1941 at the age of 19. He would surely have been too young to have submitted a drawing for a bill that was issued in 1935. Although the other drawings are unsigned, I think that Fanais did them, though I would certainly be grateful for feedback on this.
This one is dedicated to Canadian shipping:
In the top left corner is E19. Compare the face of the mail semi-nude figure to the face of a drawing by Fanais that was just auctioned on Wednesday (Spooner Auctions)!
Here is another image, which also has the marks of being by Fanais (feedback welcome!):
Another:
Feedback / questions would be most welcome. Perhaps someone on this forum actually knew Goranson or Fanais. I've certainly enjoyed learning something about Canadian currency in this process.
