Wood Engraving Wednesday
DOROTHEA BRABY
Dorothea Braby (1909-1987) was a British artist and freelance designer known mainly for her wood-engraved book illustrations, especially for Golden Cockerel Press. This print was one of five Braby produced for the 1937 Golden Cockerel edition of British author and local historian Christopher Whitfield's (1902-1967) story Mr. Chambers and Persephone. Whitfield was an obscure author, but Golden Cockerel proprietors Christopher Sandford and Owen Rutter recalled that when they received the manuscript for this story, "we all felt it was one of the most enchanting love-stories of its kind we had ever read. . . ." For the book, they chose Dorothea Braby "to interpret the elusive quality of Mr. Whitfield's lovely fantasy."
Braby had studied wood engraving under the noted engravers John Farleigh and Noel Rooke, and had become a friend of the Rutter family. Whitfield's novella was Braby's first commission for Golden Cockerel. At first, Rutter's partner Sandford seemed unimpressed with Braby's work, but over time came to regard her as on of his favorite go-to illustrators, giving more commissions only to his wife Lettice Sandford and to John Buckland Wright.
This print is reproduced in the Golden Cockerel Press 1936-1943 bibliography, Pertelote, A Sequel to Chanticleer, printed in London by the Press’s co-owners Christopher Sandford and Owen Rutter. Our copy is another donation from our late friend Jerry Buff (1931-2025).
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