RAVERAT, Gwendolen Mary.

The Wood Engravings of Gwen Raverat. Selected with an Introduction by Reynolds Stone.

First edition. This was the first catalogue of the wood-engravings of Raverat (1885-1957) to be published, and the works were selected and edited by the distinguished wood-engraver Reynolds Stone (1909-1979), who later wrote of her that, ‘Everything that Gwen Raverat undertook was done with intelligence and skill – her graphic work for the Admiralty in the Second World War, as well as her theatre designs and paintings and drawings – but it was through wood-engraving that she was able to communicate her vision most fully. In her engraving she did not aim at decoration or use a strong decorative line, like her friend Eric Gill; nor was she a naturalist interested in the rendering of a bird's plumage or an animal's fur, like Thomas Bewick. Rather, she was a master of light, shade, and the interplay of textures, with a deceptively simple technique, and a bold sense of design’ (ODNB). The volume reproduces both individual engravings and suites of images for the books that Raverat illustrated for the Ashendene Press and other publishers.