The Story of High Street

RAVILIOUS, Eric (Illus.); RICHARDS, J.M. (Text). The Story of High Street. Sparham: The Mainstone Press, 2008. Limited edition of 750 copies, a handsome production to mark the 70th anniversary of the original edition of High Street, first published in 1938 by Country Life Books. Conceived as a children's book of shops, it features 24 lithographs by Eric Ravilious depicting a variety of wonderful local shops of the pre-war era - cheesemongers, oyster bars, wedding cakes, letter makers, theatrical properties, model ships and railways, submarine engineers, fireworks, amusement arcades, and more. High Street is one of the most famous and beloved English illustrated books of the twentieth century. Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) was a painter, illustrator, lithographer, wood-engraver, and designer, who is now regarded as one of the finest English artists of the twentieth-century. Ravilious served as a war artist and was killed on a search and rescue flight from Iceland in September 1942. This edition is a reprint of the original edition, including reproductions of all 24 plates from the first issue. It also includes two major essays and an eclectic range of illustrations and preparatory drawings. In the first essay, The Making of High Street , art historian Alan Powers places the book in historical context, providing illuminating insights into its conception, production and publication. The second essay, High Street at Seventy by James Russell, describes the quest to identify and locate each of the shops depicted by Ravilious. 4to, original blue cloth, colour label to front board (reproducing Ravilious s watercolour sketch of the Submarine Shop ). 280pp, col plates+ text illustrations. Fine copy in original slipcase (also fine). ISBN: 9780955277726.…