The Four Seasons. An Impression of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter: a Landscape Panorama.
London: Gogmagog Press, (1965-66). Four small octavo volumes, each (26)pp. One of 100 copies printed on Hosho paper, signed by the artist/printer Morris Cox. Each volume contains a colorful panorama of nature printed from heavily textured blocks, which give the offset prints an embossed effect. The changing seasons appear in a flowing image with delicate natural forms and subtle hues. Colin Franklin says that the group is "reckoned as the peak of his achievement as a printer." The texture of the prints derives from the unusual printing blocks used to create them. Cox mounted sheets of cardboard onto plywood and layered them with gesso, next adding materials from nature like seeds, leaves, and twigs. These natural elements were then varnished for strength. Printing these unconventional blocks required an inventive approach. According to David Chambers, "These were printed by using the office copying press and then screwing this down several times as the blocks were drawn through on a long carriage." Slight spine slant on Autumn, light, uniform toning, else a fine set in monotype-printed pictorial boards and original acetate wrappers. Considered to be the magnum opus of the Press. Item #23544
(Chambers 14-17, 20, 136).
Price: $2,000.00