I have always loved Eric Gill‘s work (though revelations in his 1989 biography by Fiona MacCarthy make me not at all keen on the man himself). Gill (1882—1940) was a supremely talented sculptor, typeface designer (Gill Sans is probably his most famous), stonecutter and print maker. His work has a wonderfully sparse, graphic quality, with purity of line and lack of fussy ornamentation and detail.
Gill illustrated a 1925 edition of The Song of Songs, otherwise known as The Song of Solomon from the Old Testament of the Bible, published by the Golden Cockerel Press in a limited run of 750 copies. The Song of Songs is a strange part of the Bible: it is a celebration of erotic, sexual love. Gill was drawn to erotic subjects, and so it is no surprise that he chose The Song of Songs to illustrate.
Eric Gill, woodcut from The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925.
This piece accompanies the part of the text that reads:
While the King was reclining
mine own spikenard gave out his odour.
A bunch of myrhh is my beloved to me:
he shall rest between my breasts.
A hand-tinted version of the Eric Gill woodcut in an edition of The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925.
I recently bought a small brass plaque with an image that I didn’t recognise, but a style that I did. A bit of poking about on the internet, and my hunch was confirmed: it was based on an Eric Gill woodcut, specifically one from The Song of Songs.
Brass plaque based on the Eric Gill woodcut in The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
Another view of the brass plaque based on the Eric Gill woodcut in The Song of Songs, published by the Golden Cockerel Press, 1925. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
I’m not for a moment suggesting that the plaque itself is by Gill, but it is clear whose artwork is depicted in low relief. The ‘Relax’ underneath is also nothing to do with Gill (a shame the makers didn’t use a Gill typeface for it … Bit of a missed opportunity there!)
There is also a lovely hand-coloured Gill woodcut for sale in the FittedFab shop on Etsy at the moment:
Hand-coloured woodcut ‘Angels and Shepherds’ by Eric Gill, 1923. For sale at FittedFab on Etsy: click on photo for details.