Spitsticks & multiples
Subtitle: The Society of Wood Engravers 1920-46 and the English Wood Engraving Society
By: Simon Lawrence with an introduction by Joanna Selborne
Contributors: Fleece Press; Fine Book Bindery (Firm)
Publisher: Fleece Press
Published: 2022
Place of publication: Upper Denby, Huddersfield
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781916335530; 9781916335547
Subjects: Society of Wood Engravers; English Wood Engraving Society
Other titles: Spitsticks and multiples
Notes: Covers the huge quantity of work produced by the members during the first 20 or so years of the Society, with biographies of almost every one of the 342 exhibiting engravers, alongside the transcribed minute books of the Society, surviving correspondence, press cuttings, private view invitations, posters, and the entire list of exhibited prints. An overview of these early Society of Wood Engravers days is provided in an Introduction by Joanna Selborne.

The team at the Fine Book Bindery in Finedon made two bindings. The two volumes are bound in quarter cloth and Tirzah Garwoodd's patterned papers, with a paper label.

145 special copies contain twenty-two tipped-in engravings printed by me from the original blocks. These copies are housed in a slipcase. 300 standard include the same illustrations but are not printed directly from the blocks.

March 2020 marked the Centenary of the Society of Wood Engravers. One hundred years earlier, seven engravers met in Philip Hagreen's studio and six of those seven agreed to form a new Society with a single agreed purpose of mounting exhibitions devoted to 'woodcutting and engraving by the European method'. During these early years between 1920 and 1946, the Society comprised a tiny group of about fifteen to twenty members, plus a few associates. Although numerous travelling exhibitions were put on with many brilliant prints, sales struggled. The backroom story is also one of struggle, particularly when the Society of Wood Engravers split in 1925, and its offshoot the English Wood Engraving Society, was formed.

Rare Book copy: Standard copy

Twenty-first-century quarter blue cloth; patterned papers over boards (a different design for each volume); printed paper title label to spine; orange ribbon marker attached.