Some Birds and Beasts and Their Feasts by Enid Marx: Rare Book of the Week
Some Birds and Beasts and Their Feasts by Enid Marx
A new edition of Enid Marx ABC engravings has been launched by Awen Press.
Some Birds and Beasts and Their Feasts uses the animal alphabet blocks carved by Marx for the 1996 edition of the same name printed by Incline Press run by Graham Moss, following their first publication in 1985 by Douglas Cleverdon as a Clover Hill Edition called An ABC of Birds and Beasts.
The book is printed with 25 alphabetical images, directly from the original wood engraving, plus one zinco on the frontispiece. The letter U was missing from the set so Helen Moss - Graham Moss' partner until his death last year - who runs Awen carved an acrylic replica copied from the Incline Press edition.
Enid Marx (1902-1998) taught wood engraving at The Ruskin School of Art in Oxford with Paul Nash, Barnett Freedman and Eric Ravilious who, with Edward Bawden, were jointly known as the 'Curwen Group'. In 1945, Marx was the first woman engraver to be designated the Royal Designer for Industry and made postage stamps, book plates, patterned paper, calendars and zoo posters, working with the Curwen Press, Penguin Books, and Chatto and Windus.
She was a passionate supporter of Incline Press which printed several of her books, illustrated with engravings, woodcuts and lino blocks.
