Wood Engravers and the Written Word
Wood engraving in the 1930’s goes hand in hand with the popularity of small press publications, combining illustration with the written word. The precursor to one of Art on Paper’s favourite later artists, Paul Peter Piech and his Taurus Press, are these small scale printing presses. The works published allowed the collector or enthusiasts of wood engraving artists to have high quality illustrations by great names, to treasure at a much more affordable price than many limited edition prints.
Naomi Mitchison (1897 – 1999) was a nurse, novelist and social commentator, but she also wrote poetry. The Alban Goes Out is a poem written in 1939 by Mitchison about a fishing boat, The Alban. It is a long narrative poem describing a night’s fishing with the Carradale fishermen. Vigorous and arresting, it is a vivid and intimate description of the environment, the fishing boats in Kilbrennan Sound, the personalities and activities of the fishermen, and of a whole community.
The Alban Goes Out by Naomi Mitchison. Illustrated by Gertrude Hermes.
The poem is bound with thread in a blue paper cover printed with a Gertrude Hermes illustration of a diving sea bird. It is illustrated with two wood engravings also by Hermes. One is of the crew of the Alban hauling in the net, and one of the fishermens’ catch. Gertrude Hermes OBE RA (1901 – 1983) was a superb British wood engraver. Hermes exhibited with the society of wood engravers, the Royal Academy and the London Group during the 1930’s. Hermes taught wood engraving and linocutting first at the Central School of Art in London (late 40’s/early 50’s) where John Farleigh had previously taught, and later at the Royal Academy Schools.
This publication is held in the Royal Academy book collection.
The Boar’s Head Press was another small press, printing between 1930 and 1936. Originally owned by wood engraver Robert Gibbings, it was later run by Christopher Sandford (1902 – 1983) and his wife Lettice Sandford (nee Mackintosh Rate; 1902-1993) in Manaton, Devon.
Christopher was a book designer and Lettice a wood engraver and illustrator. The Boar’s Head Press issued a number of books by contemporary authors, many of them illustrated with wood engravings by Lettice. Christopher Sandford later ran the Golden Cockerel Press, also previously owned by Robert Gibbings. The Golden Cockerel Press employed many of the finest wood engravers of the age as illustrators for its publications including Robert Gibbings, Eric Gill, Hughes-Stanton, Eric Ravilious, John Buckland Wright and Lettice Sandford.
Salome Before the Head of Saint John, written by Nigel Morland and Peggy Barwell. Illustrated by Lettice Sanford.
Salome Before the Head of Saint John was written by Nigel Morland and Peggy Barwell, and was illustrated by Lettice Sandford. It was printed in 1933 by the Boar’s Head Press. Nigel Morland (1905 – 1986) was born Carl Van Biene and wrote many novels and books on criminology under a number of different names. He collaborated with Peggy Mabel Barwell on several books for children in the 1930’s that were illustrated by Barwell, and they were briefly married in 1932.
Collaboration between writers and artists also happened in books that are published on a larger scale. One such work is the classic novel by Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. The illustrated version was first published in 1931 by Faber and Faber Ltd. and illustrated with images by the artist Barnett Freedman (1901-1958), who later became a war artist.
Illustration by Barnett Freedman in Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry Officer.
The 1930’s was a period of wonderful developments in printing, pressing and engraving, which produced many treasures that are still available today. There is a fantastic show opening at Salisbury Museum that will have on display some of the very best examples of British wood engraving that you could hope to lay your eyes on. It is called Cutting It Fine: The Art of the British Wood Engraver. The exhibition is on from October 16th 2021 until January 16th 2022.
