GILL, Eric. Wood-Engravings… Ditchling, Sussex: S. Dominic's Press. 1924.
Large 4to. Original oatmeal cloth with exceedingly rare blue dustwrapper with woodcut of "Virgin and Child" to front; 36 leaves with 34 wood-engravings; title page and two plates printed in red and black; dustwrapper with very light horizontal crease at front just below top edge and a little sunned to spine, a little spotting to cloth, very faint toning to edges, very good.
No.IV of 50 numbered copies out of an edition of 150. Numbered by hand in minute digits to the first plate, "She Loves Me Not".
This beautiful compendium of Gill's wood engravings was produced without his knowledge or permission by Douglas Pepler, the founder of St. Dominic's Press in Ditchling. He had moved there in 1915 to collaborate with Gill, but financial disagreements between the two men contributed to Gill's decision to leave Ditchling for Capel-y-Ffin in 1924. Gill wanted to take the woodblocks for these engravings with him, but Pepler considered them to be the property of the Dominican Order, of which he was a lay member and for whom the works had been intended. He refused to let Gill take the blocks and instead produced this magnificent collection of images with the artist's characteristic mixture of the divine and the profane. Gill never spoke to Pepler again.
Provenance: front pastedown with the bookplate of Andrew and Mary Henderson Bishop of Lanarkshire, best known for lending their name to one of the most prestigious ladies' curling competitions in Scotland.
Gill 410; Taylor & Sewell A129a.
SKU: 2122169