George Bayntun Archives - Rare Book Insider

A Cross Section. The Society of Wood Engravers in 1988.

Wood engraved title page, 41 plates and two vignettes. First Edition. Folio. [290 x 205 x 28 mm]. [24]pp. Bound by Chris Hicks in 2001 (signed "CLH" and dated at the rear) in black goatskin over bevelled boards and smooth spine, with multiple white goatskin onlays, tooled with black dots and roundels of various shapes. White calf doublures, tooled with gilt dots and roundels, and endleaves, plain edges. In terracotta cloth drop-over box with wooden panel on front lettered in gilt. Rather confusingly the half-title is lettered "The Society of Wood Engravers in 1987". The text includes an obituary of Stanley Lawrence by Ian Mortimer. The engravings are of the highest quality. Chris Hicks's binding is highly ambitious and is adapted from an engraving of two trees in a field by Garrick Palmer. It has to be said that the forwarding is less successful than the overall design. Three of Hicks's bindings are held by the British Library and illustrated in the BL Database of Bookbindings.