A View of the Cotswolds: photographs by Edwin Smith (Whittington Press, 2005)

The Whittington Press is situated within the Cotswolds, a region of rolling green hills in south east England, now designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The photographer Edwin Smith took his camera on a tour of the region in the early 1950s to capture life in this rural idyll. The timing would prove opportune, for the Cotswolds then stood on the threshold of the very modernity it had so far escaped. Smith’s photographs of thatched cottages, children playing on unpaved roads, and matronly figures in bare-walled parlours could have been from the late nineteenth century. It’s remarkable, then, that these images were taken well within living memory. About half a century later, the Whittington Press brought Smith’s pictures together in A View of the Cotswolds, an edition of 350 copies. Of those, 70 were specials that were half-bound in black leather and included two photographic prints directly from the negatives. Here I’ll be looking at one of the 280 ordinary copies.

The volume is presented in a black slipcase with grey cloth top and and bottom ends. Within is a book half-bound in that same grey cloth over paper sides, printed with a repeating pastoral wood engraving made by Edwin Smith. The title is blocked on the spine in silver and the binding is sewn with black and yellow bands. Opening the book we find plain black endpapers enclosing text pages of Bugra-Bütten mould-made paper. This paper has a rich cream colour, a good weight, and a quite pleasing coarse texture. Reading the book is an altogether pleasing tactile experience.

In a stylish touch that could easily go unnoticed, the signatures are sewn with a black thread that sits in the gutter, contrasting nicely against the brighter page surface. The text is set in Poliphilus with Fry’s Baskerville display to a fairly simple arrangement, and printed letterpress to Whittington’s usual exacting standards. In classic Whittington Press style, we have a title page printed in two colours in an austere but pleasing design.

The book opens with a series of short essays, beginning with a one-page introduction (in fact, it’s part acknowledgement) by Wittington’s proprietor, John Randle. In it he describes how he first came to work with Olive Cook, Edwin’s late widow, on the project, and offers thanks to those who helped bring the project to fruition. Next is Ian Mackenzie-Kerr‘s four-page note on Edwin Smith and Olive Cook, detailing their collaboration over half a century of publishing books on architecture. Architecture scholar Alan Powers has furnished an eight-page essay on “The Cotswolds and Cultural Pessimism”. In it he provides a narrative account of the Cotswolds’ place as one of the last enclaves for those seeking to postpone the relentless tide of modernisation that had begun during the industrial revolution. It is more academic in tone but quite enlightening.

This delivers us to the main body of the book: 31 photographs by Edwin Smith, along with a commentary by Shawn Kholucy and Rory Young. Beginning with the images, these are black and white plates printed (by CTD) in tritone on semi-gloss bright white paper. Most occupy a full page, but a few are either half-page or a two-page spread. The tritone printing makes for a good photographic reproduction, but modern readers are spoiled with high-quality “coffee table” photography books so prints of this quality are likely to be familiar to most. The images depict a range of mostly pastoral scenes encompassing quaint cottages, churches and barns; stately formal gardens; and the urban architecture of nearby towns.

The accompanying commentary by Kholucy and Young is quite informative. They point out the small details of architecture or environment that contribute to the story and history of these places. These authors have also revisited the locations of almost every photograph and provide descriptions of how scenes have (not) changed. They are also helpful and knowledgeable guides in pointing out the small details of architecture or environment that contribute to the story and history of these places. It was sometimes tantalising to read that this chimney had been remodelled, or that view has been altered by the demolition of a building. Seeing modern photographs for comparison might have been a real treat. Alas, we must do without. This is probably for the better as modern images would merely cramp the book’s style (and eventually become dated in their own right). We always have Google Streetview to do our own exploring if not able to visit in-person.

After the photographs comes another essay by Edwin Smith himself, recounting his working practices in photographing British churches. There’s also a bibliography of books containing his photographs, compiled by George Ramsden and Veronica Watts. The book ends with a colophon reading “This edition of 350 copies is set in Poliphilus & Fry’s Baskerville and printed at Whittington on Bugra-Bütten mould-made paper. The tritones are printed by CTD, & the wood-engraving on the cover is by Edwin Smith. 70 copies are half-bound in leather and contain two prints made from the original negatives. MARCH 2005 Copy no: [hand-numbered]”.

In overall summary, Whittington is best known for its superlative letterpress printing, which is certainly on display here. But this is primarily a book of photographs and thus a little removed from the usual fare of the press. Fortunately, their remains a beautiful production in essentially all respects, and should be particularly appealing to those with a historical interest in the subject matter, or those seeking an escape to a rural English idyll that has almost ceased to exist.

I should remark that this is not the only book of photographs published by Whittington. Others include A Slow Ride to India and Portraits of Presses. Look out for reviews of those on this blog soon. ■

Where to buy

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Miscellaneous

Here’s a modern photograph of Bibury, one of the towns featured in A View of the Cotswolds that has mostly retained its historic character despite the inevitable encroachment of the motor car and television aerial.

A view of Bibury, a typical Cotswold village. Photo by David Iliff. (from Wikimedia commons CC BY-SA 3.0).