Engraved Letters by Eric Gill

As well as being the inventor of Gill Sans and Perpetua, Eric Gill was a prolific wood engraver. The letters on this page, engraved in 1923, were intended perhaps for use in a book. View this and other wood engravings by the artist at Tate Britain, by appointment.

Or, if you're in Los Angeles between now and March, you could go along to the exhibition 'Eric Gill: Iconographer' at the Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University.

Robert Gibbings: Wood Engravings

Clear Waters, early 1920s

Whale Leaping, 1935

Scouting for Whales, 1935

Harpooning, 1935

Cormorant, 1937

Seagull, 1934

A prolific wood engraver, author and publisher (as owner of the Golden Cockerel Press in the 1920s and early 30s), Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) was the epitome of the Romantic Modern. He published more than seventy limited edition books during his tenure at the press, commissioning Eric Gill, Eric Ravilious, John Nash and numerous other artists to illustrate them with wood engravings.

By the late 1930s he was becoming popular as an author who illustrated his own books with sometimes quirky illustrations. He had a particular penchant for rivers, and had a wartime hit with 'Sweet Thames Run Softly'; the recent reissue by Little Toller reproduces the wood engravings very well. The pictures above are from 'The Wood Engravings of Gibbings' by Thomas Balston (1949 ed).

Just for fun, here's the extraordinary harpooning picture fulfilling its purpose...

Only 275 copies of this book were printed, so it's rather expensive (sigh). I love to see commissioned wood engravings in their intended context; they work so well with text.