Julius John Lankes (1884-1960) was an American illustrator, wood engraver, and woodcut artist. Influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, Lankes helped elevate wood relief prints to a fine art, executing over 1300 prints in his career. One of the last books he illustrated with wood engravings was Wisconsin author and publisher August Derleth’sCountry Poems, shown here, printed in Iowa City by Carroll Coleman at his Prairie Press in 1956. Coleman printed the text in Bulmer Roman and Original Oldstyle Italic types. Our copy is a gift from our friend Jerry Buff.
“They took out their precious book.” Wood engraving by Joseph Swain, based on the artwork of John Everett Millais, for the periodical Once A Week, volume 6, December 1861 - June 1862.
Study. Wood engraving by Georges Leon Alfred Perrichon, based on the artwork of Eugene Carriere. The portrait was included in the periodical, L’Image (1896-1897), published in Paris, France by Henri Floury.
Glance at Detroit from the city hall. Wood engraving by John Douglas Woodward for Picturesque America, Volume 1, published in 1872. The book was edited by William Cullen Bryant.
Opening illustration for the story, Adventures in Skitzland, contained in the book, The Chicken Market and Other Fairy Tales, written by Henry Morley. The illustration is a wood engraving by the Dalziel brothers, based on the artwork of Charles Henry Bennett.
in 1940, steuben glass, nyc, issued a catalog accompanying their exhibition Designs in Glass by Twenty-seven Contemporary Artists—period gem, set throughout in bodoni. in the introduction, john m. gates, then director of steuben, tells us: «Greatly encouraged by Matisse’s interest, and confident that crystal could be the medium of high artistic expression, I then set about with Steuben’s liberal and whole-hearted backing to gather the greatest contemporary artists in Europe and in America into a single group for the purpose of proving that conviction.». steuben executed an edition of six of each creation, retaining one of each for its permanent collection. from eric gill steuben selected a pair of border decorations from the large set he had engraved for the golden cockerel press edition of geoffrey chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde [arundell del re (ed.), waltham st. lawrence, 1927]; & used these to decorate a pair of flutes (1st illustration). i am, however, amazed that the catalog fails to name the glass engraver responsible for emblazoning gill’s, or indeed any other, designs. this particular border pair, entitled Naked Youth & Naked Girl Looking Back (2nd illustration), we may imagine depict troilus & criseyde themselves with cupid clinging above in criseyde’s stalk. apparently, the unnamed steuben engraver took some license with gill’s designs, shifting the stalks & making slight adjustments to postures—presumably better to adapt the contour of the vessels, & optimise translucence.
2nd illustration: facsimile of the pair printed on a single sheet (from an edition of 10) in the wolseley fine arts catalogue Eric Gill | 1882-1940 | Drawings and Engravings from the state of Mrs. Petra Tegetmeier | Part 1 1913-1928 | 28 March — 28 April 2001 [wolseley fine arts, london, 2001, p17].
