Modern British Prints
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SOLDEric Gill (1882-1940):
St Helena, 1922 (Physick 1963 )
None (ref: 10554)
Lettered: "OPN" and inscribed with title, signed on the base
The original woodblock
Carved in silhouette and filled with gesso
2.5 x 1.2 in. (6.3 x 3.1 cm)See all works by Eric Gill woodblock portraits religion women Hidden Gems Season II: Spirituality
Provenance: The Artist's own collection; Peter Cornish
Literature: Physick 1963 / The Engraved Work of Eric Gill (204)
This depiction of the saint seated, holding cross was produced as a design for a book-plate for Petra Helen Gill in 1922
A copy of the print taken from this block is in the collection of The British Museum (number 1930,0306.73) -one of two designs for book-plates printed on same sheet.
Eric Gill paid Gibbings £200 for the blocks that the Golden Cockerel Press had commissioned up to 1933. As with others he cut many of these to sculptured shapes, filled the engraving with a gesso-like substance, and sold them or gave them away as ornaments; thus ensuring that no further prints could be taken', Christopher Skelton, (introduction to Eric Gill, The Engravings, p 13).
