posted on 13 Dec 2015

High Street by J.M. Richards and Eric Ravilious

What makes a book a cult object and expensively collectible? There’s no single answer to that question when it comes to books but scarcity in terms of the numbers of first editions available to the market is certainly somewhere near the top of the list.

High Street was an unremarkable project when it was conceived – essentially a children’s book that provides a tour of high street shops giving a chance to provide the reader with information about the secrets behind these retail outlets. Even when the book was written, the shops included look extraordinarily nostalgic and recherché; the Oyster Bar, Submarine Engineer and Theatrical Properties shops are hard to place on any average High Street at any time.

The shops featured here are, in fact, all modelled on real ones to be found somewhere in London even if not all on the same street. But it’s not the text that makes this book – it is, of course, the magnificent Eric Ravileous illustrations. This was, I think, his last published book because whilst acting in his role as official war artist his plane was lost in 1942 somewhere over Iceland.

Ravilious’s reputation has continued to grow in the post war years and his work is eagerly sought-after – and this includes first editions of High Street. And this brings us to the cult rarity of this publication.

The book was printed by the Curwen Press and published in 1938 by Country Life with a print run of 2,000 copies and might have been expected to go into further impressions of that first edition in subsequent years. However, war intervened in this process and at some point during the Blitz the original lithographic plates were destroyed and as a result no further copies were produced. You’ll now expect to pay anything from £2,000 - £3,500 for a copy of that original first edition – a price well beyond the aspiration of the average book collector.

Fortunately for the rest of us The Victoria and Albert Museum have reconstructed the book and reprinted a version in 2012 which can be purchased for a more modest price of £15 or under. Go and get yourself one...

 

Terry Potter

December 2015