Women Engravers Patricia Jaffe
Wood engraving was, for almost two centuries, the commonest means of illustrating printed work. Yet this art was not available to women until the rise of the Arts and Crafts movement, women's franchise, the establishment of classes in art schools and the decline in the craft's commercial use. Since then some of the finest exponents of the art have been women. Here, their work is studied and celebrated. It includes the pioneers - Gwen Raverat, Clare Leighton, Joan Hassall, Gertrude Hermese and Agnes Miller Parker - and contemporary engravers such as Claire Dalby, Edwina Ellis, Miriam MacGregor, Yvonne Skargon and Gillian Tyler. Patricia Jaffe, herself a practising engraver, was the author of The Drawings of George Romney and Emma Hamilton.