Beschreibung:

boxwood blockmaker. Wood engravings collected in honour of his eightieth birthday. [Limited edition (No.150 of 250 copies)] Whittington Press for Simon Lawrence, 1980 Original buckram-backed marbled boards gilt by Hunter & Foulis, slip-case. Pp. (xii) with engraved frontispiece by Leo Wyatt and 37 full-page woodcuts by Dorothea Braby, Simon Brett, Joan Hassall Gertrude Hermes Blair Hughes-Stanton, Gwenda Morgan Agnes Miller Parker Monica Poole George Mackley Reynolds Stone and many other leading wood-engravers of the time. A fine copy. Scarce. Stanley Lawrence made woodblocks for wood engravers from 1917 until 1986. He took over his family firm in 1941 and became a leading expert on wood engraving materials and handmade papers, and an avid collector of engraved blocks and prints.In 1979, Stanley Lawrence's grandson, Simon, asked John Randle at the Whittington Press to print secretly a book of wood engravings by leading engravers to celebrate his grandfather's 80th birthday. Many of the leading wood-engravers of the day contributed their work in honour of Stanley, and the resulting compilation is also a magnificent celebration of the wood-engraver's art of the late 20th century. Betty Clark's copy, with her book-label. Loosely inserted is a delightful original full-page calligraphic message of thanks to her from Dorothea Braby relating to Braby's contribution to the book, a monogram engraved especially for Lawrence and his father. Clark is also singled out for thanks in Simon Lawrence's introduction. The late Betty Clark, then a gallery-owner and dealer in modern woodcuts in Oxford, curated an important exhibition of work by women engravers in 1979, which, together with its catalogue "Shall We Join the Ladies", did so much to stimulate the modern interest in wood engraving by women. She later retired to Windermere with her husband Tim, and continued to deal in wood-engravings there for many years.