Publisher/Manufacturer: Gwasg Gregynog (Gregynog Press) Series title: The Natural History of Selborne
1930-1935 Wood engraving in black on white laid paper
223 x 148 mm. Purchase: Gwasg Gregynog / Gregynog Press 1988 Funding support: Catherine Lewis Trust
Number 4 of an edition of 20. The blocks for these illustrations were engraved in the early 1930s for Gilbert White's 'The Natural History of Selborne' but were not printed until 1988. Gilbert White's 'The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne' was first published in 1798. White showed a lot of interest in spiders and bats and here Gertrude Hermes takes her inspiration from the garden spider and the delicate spirals of its web
Book illustration for Gilbert White's 'Selborne'. Stylised wood engraving. In the upper half is a bat hanging upside down with wings outstretched. In the lower half is a cobweb with two captured moths and a large spider in the centre. In the background are stars. Paper has the watermark '+N'[?], a monogram
