A most oblique tale

If you were to triangulate Macclesfield, Whaley Bridge, and Buxton, high in the hills of the Peak District, among old farming countryside with more than a few derelict farmsteads, you’d find Jenkin Chapel near Thursbitch.  As a landscape there is little for humans beyond long walks and drives on narrow roads, a pleasure for some but just a passage for others.

Peter S. Smith RE, wood engraver, was drawn there by the story of a curious memorial stone, and that stone is the subject of this booklet.  Peter tells his story and shows his boxwood engraving of the stone, an oblique tale and it is an oblique engraving.  It is shown as the centre of the trifold, the text from the two faces of the stone holding his engraving, in their grip.

The story is set in 16 point type, designed by the calligrapher Alfred Fairbank in 1929; the cut lettering is represented by Russell Maret’s Baker, issued in 2016, also used as the titling fount.  The wood type on the cover is from Stephenson Blake. Printed on 170gsm Zerkall paper, hand sewn with linen thread into a cover made by Papeterie St-Armand in Montreal.  The edition is of 160 numbered copies, £36 including UK postage.  Each copy is signed by the author/engraver.

Peter S. Smith RE, former head of the school of Art, Design and Media at Kingston college, is a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.  He has paintings and prints in public and private collections including Tate Britain, the Ashmolean, the Fitzwilliam and the British Museum.  In September 2006 Piquant Editions published a book about his printmaking ‘The Way I See It’ with an introductory essay by Calvin Seerveld.  He currently has a studio at the St. Bride Foundation, London, where he also teaches wood engraving workshops.