(Loading cargo onto the raft) rare working proof for "Robinson Crusoe"

 

Edward Gordon Craig

  1872 - 1966 (biography)

1927  

blockprint printed in a reddish/black ink 

6 7/16 x 4 9/16" image size 

pencil signed lower right 

Proofs only 

pencil dated lower right 

 

fine laid tissue 

proof 

unpublished by Cranach Press 

13967 

$850.00 

Craig agreed to illustrate "Robinson Crusoe" in the late 1920's for Count Kessler, to be published by the Cranach Press. Because of the Count's health problems and Craig's slow production the project was abandoned in 1930. Craig revived interest in the project in 1938 and began to work again on the plates but WWII put an end to this creative burst and only a few more designs had been completed. After that he lost interest and the project was left uncompleted. A posthumous edition was printed by his son, published by the Basilisk Press in 1979. Lifetime proofs are extremely rare.