ERIC RAVILIOUS
1903-1942

LIMITED TO 20 COPIES

ERIC RAVILIOUS
For Shop Use Only
1993
[B] Hors de commerce, limited to 20 copies with 22 mounted original wood engravings. With the book, For Shop Use Only, described below which includes the justification. Boxed in a blue buckram portfolio with red labels, patterned edges, 10 x 7 x 2¾ inches.
£750

LIMITED TO 425 COPIES

ERIC RAVILIOUS
For Shop Use Only
by John Lewis et al
1993
ISBN: 0 906030 28 5
48 pages; 37 illustrations (including some original impressions) of 31 blocks
Page size: 220 x 150 mm; 8¾ x 6 inches
Labelled buckram spine, pattern paper boards, red on white.
£55

Eric Ravilious was endowed with the brilliance of design and lightness of touch not found in English wood engraving since Thomas Bewick.

His biography by Helen Binyon was published in 1983 and the few watercolours which remain outside museums are avidly sought by collectors. His wood engravings rarely come on the market. For Shop Use Only was published to mark the 50th anniversary of his death on active service off Iceland. It tells the story of a particular group of woodblocks commissioned by the two publishing houses, Curwen and Dent in the mid-1930s. The work for Curwen included commissions and stock blocks while the work for Dent was specifically for their Everyman series. Dustjacket design and title-page devices denoted each category of publication (e.g. history, science, literature, etc.). These diminutive blocks, each approximately one inch square, are brilliantly and dynamically executed and invested with a witty symbolism to represent their subject. These devices adorned Everyman books between 1935 and 1953, continuing in some cases until 1957.

The Dent blocks, including some never used, are catalogued individually. Likewise the Curwen stock blocks are catalogued together with a full account of the uses to which they have been put over the years.

The catalogue and introduction are followed by three short chapters:
        Eric Ravilious by John Lewis
        Recollections by Enid Marx
        Postal Dissension - some mildly explosive views held and expressed by Christopher Sandford of the Golden Cockerel Press concerning Eric Ravilious, wood engraving, wood engravers and printers by Robert Harling
       
Particularly charming is the chapter by Enid Marx, written with total recall at the age of 90 about her friendship with Ravilious which had started 70 years before.

THE BOOK, For Shop Use Only, was printed in letterpress by Michael Mitchell at the Libanus Press in Marlborough in 10 on 15 point Perpetua which Gill began to design in 1925 and which accompanied Ravilious's designs in the Everyman series. An original wood engraving Travel is tipped in. Headpieces printed in red from the original blocks. The block for the upper board of the Everyman series is presented in blind press (as it was used) and one of the Curwen blocks is touched in colour by hand as directed by instructions in the Curwen stock block book.


THE PORTFOLIO (which also carries a copy of the book) contains 20 original wood engravings by Eric Ravilious. Each wood engraving is numbered by hand. The total edition was 87, plus 20 hors de commerce. The edition was issued in four parts: A, B, C, D. These have all now sold out. The hors de commerce suites were part of the B edition and we are now offering a couple of these sets for sale. The set contains two ADDITIONAL impressions from uncleared Curwen blocks and brings the total to 22 engravings (8 Curwen, 14 Dent).