Can you help identify Sydbie, a Hertfordshire Water Colour Artist circa 1905?

Click to see all his known pictures

"Sydbie" was a water colour artist who pictures of Hertfordshire appear in three post card series. 

The first series of six was published in about 1905 by the somewhat mysterious "Water Colour Post Card Co." which may have been what we would now call vanity publishers. However the number of cards showing views near Barnet that appear on ebay suggests quite a number were sold.

The second series have a distinctive logo on the back and show views of St Albans (2 known) and my also have been privately published in about 1906, 

Finally in about about 1908 at least three of his watercolours of St Albans were published by Boots in the Pelham series.

A couple of says ago Terry contacted me to say that he owned the original water colour painting for one of the cards (see picture) and this reopens the key question:

Who was Sydbie?

It seems likely that he was an amateur artist who lived in the Barnet and/or St Albans area in about 1905 and may have had a name like "Sidney B, ????" or "Sidney B?????."  Can you help? And do you know of any other of his paintings or post cards?

Herts Past & Present - Contents of Issue No 16

Herts Past & Present

Autumn 2010

Issue No 16

Contents

Brief Guide to Sources: Apprenticeship Indentures

Lydia Hope's inventory of paintings and Charles I's art collection (St Albans)

Some of Hertfordshire's Special Trees

The Great Bed of Ware: A Literary History

Property ownership in twelve Hertfordshire parishes in the nineteenth century (Hitchin area)

More Information

Hertfordshire and the Public Catalogue Foundation

The Public Catalogue Foundation has been recording the oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom and this can be viewed on the BBC site Your Paintings. I decided to have a look to see if there were many that could be relevant to this web site and a search for "Tring" produced a number such as this one of the Tring Market House, which is held by the Dacorum Heritage Trust on loan from the Tring & District Local History Society. A search for "Hemel Hempstead" showed three pictures held by the Dacorum Heritage Trust - The Six Bells Pub, Bury Road (which had been given by Stephen Hearn, of Tring Market Auctions), Hemel Hempstead Market, showing members of the Cranstone Family (purchases with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund), and Highfield Farm, Hemel Hempstead (donated by the artist, David Neal). Searches for several smaller villages produced nothing by I found this lovely painting of Redbourn Church painted in 1901 and on display in the Wardown Park Museum, Luton.

While this new site does not many  Hertfordshire paintings why not add a comment here if you find one relevant to your family history!