Etchings illustrating Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'.

A Limited Edition; 1 of 25 Copies Signed by the Artist and Numbered D280, Hors Commerce, of a total edition of 300. Large Folio (65cm * 93cm), 19 etchings with aquatint on J. Barcham Green wove paper, title, introduction by Mevill Coghill, text and justification page, unbound and uncut, housed in Publisher's olive-green portfolio box with a gold embossed design of an eagle to front cover. Published by Leslie Waddington Prints Ltd (London), 1972.

Internally a fine example. The portfolio box is very good; some light marking and rubbing, wanting ties, a dent to one inner flap of the portfolio box, creasing to some tissue guards.

This work was published in three limited editions, with our example being one of the lowest limitation limited edition produced. The etchings were printed by Cliff White at White Ink Ltd (London), where they were drawn onto copper plates and etched by Frink. The 19 etchings produced by Frink illustrate: The Prologue, The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale I, The Miller's Tale II, The Reeve's Tale, The Shipman's Tale, The Prioress's Tale, Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topaz, The Nun's Priest's Tale, The Physician's Tale, The Pardoner's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Summoner's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, The Merchant's Tale, The Squire's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, The Second Nun's Tale and The Manciple's Tale.

In the Introduction, Nevill Coghill writes in part:

"Chaucer's clear, clean simplicity of presentation or art of story-telling is mirrored in these Frink reflections; she, like him, has found an idiom or style that tunes in with all the Chaucerian topics of her choice, varied as they are, whether chivalric and romantic, bawdy or bourgeois, pious or ironical: whether the manners of the gentry, the clergy, the city merchants or the country copulatives. She has given fresh life to that God's plenty which Dryden first noted in The Canterbury Tales."

Frink's etchings are meant to be interpretative images and have been acclaimed as among the best of the 20thcentury. In sync with Chaucer's characters, Frink's illustrations are both majestical and satirical. They depict "a striking contrast of reverse silhouetting of figures and animals, and starry, striking backgrounds, perhaps indicative of the experimental techniques Frink was exploring in her work at the time." (Holburne Museum, Bath.)

Aligning with the new freedoms of the 1960s and 1970s, Frink appears through the illustrations to enjoy Chaucer's candid descriptions of lust and love. For example, The Miller's Tale, relays how two lovers, Alisoun and Nicholas, fool both her husband and another admirer, Absolon.

Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930–1993) is widely regarded as the best British sculptor of her time and a printmaker of major significance. She was born in Sussex in 1930 to Jean Elisabeth Conway-Gordon and Ralph Cuyler Frink. Ralph was an Army Captain and one of the soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Frink was greatly influenced by her childhood wartime experiences and deeply reflected upon the nature of humanity through her work.

Frink created more than 400 sculptures during her lifetime and unlike many of her peers famously never hired any assistants. She was recognised for her work and contribution to art with a C.B.E. (1969), being the first female sculptor elected as a Royal Academician (1977), a Dame of the British Empire (1982) and a Companion of Honour (1992). In addition to her art work she taught at the Royal College of Art. The obituary written in The Times for Frink reflected that the three key themes in her work were, "the nature of Man; the "horseness" of horses; and the divine in human form."

Frink summarised her views on the impact of art in an interview with Sarah Kent in 1992, where she stated:

"I think all art is an instrument of change through awareness. One of the most important things about art – and I don't mean sculpture, I mean all the arts – is that it must be a civilising influence. That is its main value: to make people aware of all sorts of different areas of their minds."

(Holburne Museum, Bath, Messums, Wiltshire, Sarah Kent, 1992 Interview, Sarah Kent, in Houfe 1994.

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