High Street

Product Information

The Maidstone Press reprinted the original images and text for this stunning new edition which includes essays by Alan Powers and James Russell as well as many other illustrations relating to the original book. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Eric Ravilious (1903–1942) was a painter, designer, illustrator and wood engraver, and he remains one of the best-known English artists of the 1930s. With the addition of text from Ravilious's friend, Jim Richards, what was produced was one of the most famous and iconic illustrated books of the twentieth century.

Here you’ll find a growing selection of our art prints for sale – all are available for immediate purchase online. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. Meanwhile, concern over loss of distinctiveness in the retail world has given us several recent books, whose authors share Ravilious’s love of the idiosyncratic. A superb, near fine copy, showing only trivial wear to the spine ends and corners and a prize label (to Paul Sharp) to the front pastedown, in a very good glassine with a couple of minor chips and two closed tears.This beautiful facsimile edition features all 24 of Ravilious's colour illustrations, and includes an essay by Gill Saunders, Senior Curator of Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum, that sets the book in its historical context. Although not a limited edition, only about 2000 copies were ever printed as all the lithographic plates were destroyed during the Blitz.

Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. The book was never reprinted because the original plates were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942 (in the same year Ravilious, who was a captain in the Royal Marines and an official war artist, was killed in action).

A note on the transmatic dust jacket: the 1930s had seen a series of developments in the technology of plastics, and the production of cellophane had been one.

In a substantial and wide-ranging examination of the making of High Street, art historian Dr Alan Powers places the original 1938 book in historical context, giving new and significant insights into its conception, production and publication.

The specialist, whether selling cheese or stuffed animals, still has an important role to play, and in London particularly whole streets of independent businesses continue to prosper. First published in 1938, this classic book introduces the British High Street, only 2000 copies of the original book were printed before the lithographic plates were destroyed in the London Blitz. And Ravilious seems to have gone out of his way to find some extraordinary examples that celebrated their individuality through the most amazing window displays. Happily Russell also discovered that two of the businesses are still trading from their original premises.