A genuine lithograph from "High Street", after a work by Eric Ravillious.
This image formed part of the design for the back cover..
First published in 1938, the plates from this classic book introduces the British high street, pairing the timeless illustrations of beloved artist Eric Ravilious with an engaging text by architectural historian J. M. Richards. Shops include the family butcher, the cheesemonger, the knife grinder, and the oyster bar.
Only 2,000 copies of the original book were printed before the lithographic plates were destroyed in the London Blitz during World War II.
These lithographs are widely regarded as among the finest of all 20th Century lithographs and highly collectable.
The illustrations show real shops, most of them in London, but representative of all the high streets of Great Britain at the time.
Oh that British high streets were as full of interesting shops now, that they were then!
Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) was an English artist working as a watercolourist, print maker, wood cutter, designer and book illustrator in between the wars England. His works captures an England changing from the certainties of the early 20th century through to the upheavals and modernisation of the country as the Second World War broke out.
Eric was tragically killed at just 39 whilst working as a war artist.
