Title: Lost & found
Description: In 1950, the publisher Paul Elek commissioned Rachel Reckitt to engrave sixteen whole-page illustrations for George Eliot's THE MILL ON THE FLOSS .... The blocks turned out to be Rachel's finest illustrative work, but Elek went into receivership and tragically [the engravings] were never published. The images were exhibited for the first time in 1997, from proofs that Rachel had taken after engraving the blocks. Shortly afterwards the blocks themselves came to light, when it was realised that the non-appearance of the engravings had been a double tragedy, for on the reverse of the blocks were parts of other much larger engravings done by Rachel before the war. Due to the wartime shortage of boxwood she had sawn the blocks down to less than half size. Lost and Found will show all sixteen of the blocks for The Mill on the Floss for the first time, as well as reconstructing the larger palimpsest images on the reverse of the blocks. -- Publisher's description.
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation, Art collections, Women wood-engravers, Illustrations, Wood-engraving, English, Specimens
Places: Great Britain
People: Rachel Reckitt, George Eliot (1819-1880)
Time periods: 20th century