Mid-Century Dust Jacket Design Archive
Collection of Original Dust Jacket Designs
Publication: England: 1958–1962.
Notes: The original hand-painted artwork for seven final and three trial dust jacket designs by one of the most acclaimed British lettering artists of the second half of the 20th century. These designs, for the London publisher Collins, date from the very beginning of Michael Harvey's career, which included some 1500 book covers. Despite being early work, they already show his mastery of lettering and abstract design. In 2022, Suffolk’s Lettering Arts Centre put on a retrospective exhibit of Harvey's work.
These original designs are full-size gouache and ink paintings (image size of about 7 by 9 inches) on paper or board, all are signed by Harvey in the image. Five of the book jacket designs are for Collins religion series; the others are novels. These designs were done for the publisher Collins while Harvey was still working as an assistant to Reynolds Stone, an acclaimed designer and letterer. Harvey (1931–2013) also apprenticed as a stone carver with Joseph Cribb, who learned the craft from Eric Gill. In his memoir Adventures with Letters, Harvey laments that "drawn lettering barely exists now, replaced by fonts: 'What font is that?' I am often asked."
This collection includes the following finished designs:
1) The New Humanity by Bruce Kenrick (1958); reproduced in Harvey's Adventures with Letters (p. 56): "My conventional sketch for The New Humanity was dismissed by editor Patsy Cohen. 'Have a gin and tonic,' she advised, 'and try again.' Floating shapes and reversed-out sans serifs did the trick."
2) Meditations of the Gospel of St. John by Adrienne von Spery (1958)—an exceptional design;
3) The Mind of St. Paul by William Barclay (1958);
4) The Death of Christ by John Knox (1959);
5) The Novelist and the Passion Story by F. W. Dillistone (1960);
6) In the Cool of the Day by Susan Ertz (1961);
7) The Nightingale by Agnes Sligh Turnbull (1961);
And these trial designs:
8) The Man Who Listens by Taylor Caldwell (1961)—very similar to final design; two design elements left off of the final version are marked for removal in pencil;
9) The Sunlit Years by Gordon Richdale (1962)—a working design, with trial colors and a visible earlier pencil sketch;
10) Meeting at Judgment Day by Petru Dumitriu (1962)—two similar designs with variant color schemes; published in the US as Meeting at the Last Judgment; Collins does not appear to have published this book.
In all, a very nice dust jacket design archive from an important British designer, showing both the exceptional quality of his finished work as well as insight into his process of refining designs.
Edition + Condition: The paintings are all very good or better, with typical markings in the margins and a few stains here and there, as one would expect from production designs. The back (verso) of most of the finished designs include a standard pasted-on printing information form.
Item No: #364057
Sold
Status: On Hold