The Fleece Press Guide to the Art of Wood Engraving
by George Tute

This book begins with a short explanation:

‘This Book is the first Fleece Press miniature; several others are in preparation. Wood engraving is a particular interest of the Press, & is eminently suited for book illustrations of all shapes and sizes. S.L.’

Calling wood engraving ‘a particular interest’ was a relative understatement; wood engraving has been part of the Lawrence family for generations and has been the subject of the majority of the books published by the Press to date. One of the Press’s most important books around the topic, Spitsticks & Multiples, is coming later in 2021.

Returning to the book at hand, the opening is followed by a lovely, short essay by the engraver George Tute touching on all aspects of the art of wood engraving. It is accompanied by complementary engravings, including one by George Tute and others by his contemporaries, including Monica Poole, Kathleen Lindsley, and John Lawrence.

The text begins at the engraver’s mission, noting that ‘the artist proceeds to work in the dark, literally creating light wherever his tools remove the wood’, and continues through a discussion of tools and the complexities of their use in creating wood engravings, rather than woodcuts. The engraver’s studio is described as a place of ‘monastic calm perhaps punctuated by cries of exasperation and disappointment’, where, in the words of Peter Forster, engravers perform ‘the most long-winded method of making a rather small picture ever devised’. But the purpose here is to praise the unique and talented minds that dedicate themselves to the peculiar joys that engraving offers. The book ends noting that there seems to be a continuing revival of the art, and the Press is pleased to note that since this book’s publication in 1986, the trend seems to only have continued; engraving has an enduring appeal in a world where traditional crafts can so easily disappear.

This miniature was published in 1986, in an edition of 295. There were 250 standard copies bound in the Liberty fabric shown in the picture here, priced at £30 each.