53
223
‘alphabet of shops’, but the book, with text by J.M. Richards, was eventually published by Noel Carrington, brother of the artist Dora Carrington and editor at Country Life Books. His enthusiasm for autolithography and children’s books - he also launched the famous Puffin Picture Book series - made him the ideal publisher for High Street, although Ravilious also benefited from the invaluable support of the Curwen Press.
In the second essay, writer and historian James Russell describes a quest to identify and locate each of the shops depicted by Ravilious. These twenty-four businesses were, as J. M. Richards pointed out in the foreword to the 1938 book, all real places, but in many cases we are given only tantalising clues as to their name or location.
You can still buy cheese at Paxton and Whitfield, a shop that has changed little in appearance over the years, but in most other cases the quest has proved much harder.
The Story of High Street traces the journey Ravilious took to create his idiosyncratic masterpiece, discovering the people he met on the way and finding out what became of the shops themselves. Ravilious created a historical document, a brightly coloured snapshot of England on the eve of World War Two, a unique portrait of a nation of shopkeepers. Exploring the fate of his twenty-four shops, The Story of High Street offers an intriguing commentary on that nation’s subsequent history.
223. MAINSTONE PRESS. Ravilious, Eric. Sussex and the Downs. Norwich. Mainstone Press, 2009.
£25
4to, original boards, in dust-jacket; illustrated in colour; new. First edition.
224.MAINSTONE PRESS. Ravilius, Eric. Ravilious in Pictures. The War Paintings. Norwich. The Mainstone Press, 2010.
£25
Oblong 4to, original boards, in dust-jacket; new copy. First edition.
225. MAINSTONE PRESS. RAVILIOUS, Eric. Ravilious in Pictures. A Country Life. The Mainstone Press, 2011.
£25
4to, original boards, in dust-jacket; new copy. First edition.
226. MARBLING. MIURA, Einen. The Art of Marbled Paper. Marbled Patterns and How to Make Them. Zaehnsdorf. 1988. £48
4to., original cloth with dust wrapper. A fine copy.
First edition. Lavishly illustrated in colour with a sample of original Cockerell Marbled paper tipped in.
227.MOSHER. BROWNING, Robert. Pompilia…With an Introduction by Arthur Symons. Portland. Thomas B. Mosher, 1903.
£248
8vo., bound in full blue morocco, boards with double gilt line panels enclosing gilt heart corner pieces, spine lettered and panelled in gilt with heart centre tools, richly gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt. A fine copy.
Limited edition of 100 numbered copies on Japan Vellum. The first separate edition of this dramatic monologue taken from the seventh section of The Ring and the Book.
Mosher was a publisher of inexpensive but well-printed books devoted to belles lettres in Portland, Maine. Many of these were reprints of English authors and caused him to be the subject of some controversy over piracy. He also edited and published The Bibelot (1895-1915), a monthly magazine reprinting “poetry and prose from scarce editions and sources not generally known.”
227 226 225
224
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92