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"The Song of Songs" - woodcut by Eric Gill, 1925

One of the great works of the early twentieth century British revival of woodcut and fine printing was the work "the Song of Songs" with woodcuts by Eric Gill and printed at the private Golden Cockerel Press, a press recently purchased by another fine artist Robert Gibbings. The book - also known as the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon is taken from the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament and Gill, whose work and religious beliefs were at times challenging, produced a stunning version with illustrations of great sensuousness and simplicity. This illustration is based on the lines "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".

 

The full book is available here;

digitalcollections.usfca.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p264101co...

 

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Uploaded on June 16, 2014
Taken on June 13, 2014