RAVILIOUS (Eric)
Twelfth Night or, What You Will.
'THE FINEST FLOWERING OF RAVILIOUS' ENGRAVED BOOK ILLUSTRATION'
Very good, covers and extremities slightly rubbed, light offsetting to title page.
Considered to be one of the the ‘greatest aesthetic successes’ of the Golden Cockerel Press, Twelfth Night was ‘the finest flowering of Ravilious’ engraved book illustration’ (Cave and Manson, The Golden Cockerel Press). Taking clear design inspiration from Gill’s Canterbury Tales, the book succeeds both because of the raw power of Ravilious’ mature technique, and by following the ‘same interactive process between typographer and artist which had worked so well with Gill for the Four Gospels’ (ibid.) The result is a harmonious melding of word and image which deserves to be considered alongside the greatest books of the press, and pairs particularly well with Gibbings’ own True Historie of Lucian the Samosatenian.
