As well as a wood engraver and writer, Joseph Crawhall II (1821–1896) was a
businessman, patron of the arts, campaigner for the preservation of architecture,
collaborator of Charles Keene, book designer, collector of antiquities, angler, baccy
smoker, executor of the will of Thomas Bewick’s daughter. Fully absorbed in the life of a
thriving and productive city, Crawhall made significant contributions in every area
of interest that he pursued.
The ‘quaint cuts’ are taken from ‘A pictoral archive of quaint cuts in the chap book
style’, a Dover press publication—now out of print—which reproduces a large
selection of Crawhall woodcuts in facsimile, taken from many of his books. Removed
from their original, careful page layouts and disconnected from the words they often
illustrate, they lose the context that is often vital to their wit. Presented in this loose
jumble, however, they demonstrate Crawhall’s formidable imagination and prolific
practice, and the arrangements take on a charm of their own.
The spreads on ‘Chaplets’ are not taken from originals, but from the superb 1976
reproduction by The Scolar Press of ‘Chap-book Chaplets’ originally published by
Field and Tuer in 1883 as a collected volume of eight chap books. It is thought that
the original editions were published in very large numbers for a hand-coloured book.
The Scolar Press version is reproduced by offset lithography, and while every
attention was paid to detail, the printing process cannot reproduce the rude density
of the blacks achieved by the wood block printing process.