Empson (Patience) & Robert Gibbings - The Wood Engravings of Robert Gibbings.

The Wood Engravings of Robert Gibbings, with some recollections by the artist. Edited by Patience Empson. Introduction by Thomas Balston. First edition, demy 4to, 28cm, pp.xliv, 355, London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1959.

Colour frontispiece on Japanese paper; 9 pages of half-tones and over 1,000 wood engravings by Robert Gibbings. Full black buckram with RG's device blocked in gold on the front and gilt spine titling. PVC dust-jacket printed silk-screen in red. Neat ownership signature. A fine copy with prospectus.

As planned in 1953, this volume was to be Robert Gibbings's choice of the blocks which he liked best up to the total of five or six hundred. But when he died, he had done little more than write the autobiographical fragment which is printed in the book. The editor, unable to guess at the engraver's choice, picked out a thousand blocks. (Kirkus 20)