British influences: Eric Gill

(Arthur) Eric (Rowton) Gill (1882–1940) was the British sculptor with whom Eleanor Milne had originally planned to study in England. This multi-faceted artist, who carved the Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral, was also a skilled wood engraver and illustrator who also designed type. He even owned his own press for a time. He was uniquely qualified to integrate all the elements of book design, and is famous for his contributions to the book arts in England. His illustrations for the Golden Cockerel Press after 1924 influenced the re-introduction of white-line wood engraving for book illustration. The Four Gospels is Gill's best known work and the culmination of his desire to fuse type design, illustration and decoration into an aesthetic whole.

Reference: Bland, David. History of Book Illustration. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1969.

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Biography of Eric Gill
Gill and the Golden Cockerel Press.
Enter search terms gill and "Eric Gill" on Adobe's search engiine to see examples of Gill's typefaces with blurbs about their design history.
About the Eric Gill Collection. This Special Collection at the University of Waterloo Library in Waterloo, Ontario (Canada) contains not only books, but engravings, glass plates, drawings and other artwork, pamphlets, journals and Christmas cards as well as rare, variant editions of Gill's works.

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