The book is a sumptuous publication by Constable, with illustrations and a cover by Ricketts, who also designed the dust jacket.
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| Charles Ricketts (design) for the dust jacket of G.B. Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) |
The cover is printed in blue and shows Joan of Arc on the stake, but symbolically: she floats above the flames in a position reminiscent of Christ on the cross.
The sketch measures 44.8 cm by 31.1 cm, a fraction larger than the final printed image, as usual. For a better reproduction, drawings were slightly larger, so that details remained clearly visible.
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| Charles Ricketts, sketch for the dust jacket of G.B. Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) |
This seems to be the final drawing before it was transferred photographically and printed on heavy paper.
Some parts have been heightened in white, and especially the lettering caused problems. In the word STAGE the distance between the G and the E is a bit too large, the letters of BY (one line below) are somewhat too close to each other.
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| Charles Ricketts, sketch for the dust jacket of G.B. Shaw, Saint Joan (1924) |
Ricketts gave that drawing away and then, at the bottom right, outside the line border, wrote a dedication: "To [????] from C. Ricketts", unfortunately with an unreadable name and without a date.
Minimum bid for this framed sketch was £3,500, price realised was: £5,625.