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In the Land of Brobdingnag: The Armour Plate Bending Presses from the series American War Work by Joseph Pennell
In the Land of Brobdingnag: The Armour Plate Bending Presses from the series American War Work
Joseph Pennell
Title
In the Land of Brobdingnag: The Armour Plate Bending Presses from the series American War Work
Artist
Joseph Pennell
1857 - 1926 (biography)Year
1917
Technique
lithograph
Image Size
15 3/4 x 20 3/4" iamge
Signature
pencil, lower center
Edition Size
fifty proofs
Annotations
Reference
Wuerth 484; LOC 812; this image was used as the cover illustration for the book: "Joseph Pennell's Pictures of War Work in America," J.B. Lippincott Co.
Paper
cream, laid MBM Ingres d Arches watermarked
State
published
Publisher
artist
Inventory ID
13426
Price
$800.00
Description
An image from a series of large lithographs Pennell did in 1917 of the factories producing steel products for the war effort. The title, Brobdingnag, is taken from Jonathan Swift's novel, Gulliver's Travels, and was the fictional land occupied by giants. The adjective 'Brobdingnagian' has come to describe anything of colossal size.
Joseph Pennell commented on this image: "Only Swift never imagined and Gulliver never saw presses and ladles and chains and cranes like these; but I have seen them, and there is no imagination in my study of the press or the ladle. A press so powerful it will slowly bend the thickest plate. A ladle so big the men were lost in it."