340
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
one of the operatives concerned. A request for an increase in pay
resulted in his dismissal. The War Office speedily detected a
falling-off in the standard of workmanship and ascertaining what
had happened approached Eric privately and offered him a post
in the War Office at a greatly increased salary. This offer was
accepted and he was engaged on very specialised work for which
he was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Gazette for
January 1, 1946. Although he remained at the War Office for a
few years the decline in the need for his special aptitude led Eric
to look elsewhere. In 1950 he took an intensive retraining course
at Goldsmiths College where he qualified to teach art at any
school. Neverthless he was not greatly attracted to teaching as a
profession and he turned to his old school rival who gladly put
him in touch with a commercial advertising agent. Although
Eric had already done some commercial work the specimens of
work he submitted were considered hardly "commercial". There
was an astonishingly skilful copy of a Bronzino made at the
National Gallery, some sheets of life-size insects including flies
and gnats of which the craftsmanship was superb; beautiful
studies using, where necessary, delicate hair lines with perfect
control yet barely visible to the average eye. So fine were the
lines that some called him "the artist with the microscopic eye-
sight". He commenced his commercial career doing copying jobs
on the lines of his work on the Bronzino with such success that
the client continued to use his services for many years, until the
method of printing changed. Then the advertising firms began
to use his work for the many appetizing food advertisements one
sees in the "glossy" magazines. Fruits, vegetables, bottled and
tinned products, cakes and biscuits and all manner of subjects
where accuracy and detail are essential. Book publishers and
children's periodicals used him for natural history drawings, and
here his wide knowledge and early liking for such subjects were
invaluable.
He was never without a job, his old clients always came back
for more, not only because he carried out the job to perfection,
was never late in carrying out the work and delivering it on time,
but he did his jobs with enthusiasm and cheerfulness and was
never "temperamental". One famous publishing house wrote,
"In the drawings Mr. Saunders carried out for us, he displayed
an extremely high standard of work, and showed himself a very
distinguished artist. His drawings are really beautiful, and I am
sure they will give much credit to the finished product of the
book".
The qualities that were to be found in his work were there
in himself.
He was one of the four artists who were specially commissioned
to prepare the Book of Remembrance for Americans killed during
World War II in the American Chapel in St. Paul's Cathedral
which is itself an example and a tribute to his skill as an artist
and a permanent memorial to himself.