Etchings illustrating Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'.

A monumental book with striking full-page etchings by Frink depicting the figures, animals and birds that characterise her work. The etchings were printed by Cliff White at White Ink Ltd., London and illustrate The Prologue, The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale I, The Miller's Tale II, The Reeve's Tale, The Shipman's Tale, The Prioress's Tale, Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topaz, The Nun's Priest's Tale, The Physician's Tale, The Pardoner's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Summoner's Tale, The Clerk's Tale, The Merchant's Tale, The Squire's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, The Second Nun's Tale and The Manciple's Tale.

'Her Canterbury Tales contains nineteen etchings drawn directly onto copper plates and etched by Frink, and the 'book' was issued in three limited editions. Her illustrations have been both excessively praised as 'amongst the most successful illustrations of the century, encompassing the mood of the text in concise delineations and disarmingly ribald (Sarah Kent, in Houfe 1994 203).

Elizabeth Frink was born in Suffolk in 1930 and became one of Britain's most eminent sculptors. She had attended Guildford School of Art, followed by Chelsea School of Art and had her first major exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London, when she was only twenty-two. Throughout her lifetime she was known as one of the most accomplished sculptors of animal and human forms men, dogs, horses and birds were constant subject-matter throughout. Her graphic work and drawings followed the same themes, being executed with the simplicity and also feeling for surface texture that is to be found in her sculptural work.