Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/189

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"Book of Carols" with wood engravings which they drew and cut themselves. In the case of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, his slight pencil sketches were translated into the terms of wood engraving by Mr. Catterson Smith and drawn on the block before being cut by Mr. W. H. Hooper. Other of the designs of Burne-Jones appearing in the Kelmscott Press were from photographs of his works re-*drawn on the wood block by Mr. Fairfax Murray and others before being passed to the engraver. William Morris believed in wood-cutting, and with all the modern styles of wood engraving he would have nothing to say. In all probability William Morris himself handled the graver. The Pre-Raphaelite firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. certainly executed work on the wood block, for Dante Gabriel Rossetti's frontispiece to his sister's "Goblin Market" is signed M. M. F. & Co.

Following the Kelmscott came the Vale Press, which was guided by somewhat similar principles. Mr. C. Ricketts, Mr. Lucien Pissaro and Mr. Reginald Savage designed and cut their own illustrations.

It will be seen that this revival was on somewhat sumptuous lines, and that its appeal could only be of necessity to the few. The same mediæval spirit has actuated a band of revivalists in wood-cutting in France. M. Paul Colin has reverted to the use of the penknife instead of the graver and is as jealous of the true value of line as was William Morris. M. Felix Vallotton is another engraver whose work stands forth as something esoteric rather than popular.

Auguste Lepère is the Frederick Sandys of France,