My First Inscription (Jane Lister), 1901 (circa)

Eric Gill was an eclectic artist: during his life he worked with sculpture, engraving, typography (designing ten different typefaces), letter-cutting and as an author. Born in Brighton, Gill moved to London in 1900. There he found work as an apprentice in an architectural practice near Westminster Abbey. From 1901 he took lessons in lettering with Edward Johnston, the great calligrapher, at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Gill was delighted by the certainty of lettering: as he once put it "letters are things, not pictures of things." The inscription at Kettle's Yard is the artist's first attempt at three-dimensional lettering. It reads: "JANE / LISTER / a / Dearchild'; 'MY FIRST / INSCT." It is likely that the text was derived from a funerary inscription in Westminster Abbey Cloisters, which reads: "IANE Lister dear childe died Oct. 7 1688". The tablet at Kettle's Yard was made around 1901, just before Gill started to attend Johnston's classes. It shows how an Arts and Crafts sensitivity to craftsmanship, material and readability occupied Gill's mind at that time. Soon after making this piece, Gill wrote a section for Johnston's seminal book Writing and Illuminating and Lettering (1903). He also took up inscription work professionally, carving letterforms for tombstones and memorials. These early works may be regarded as the first step leading towards Gill's activity as a sculptor, which began around 1909. Provenance: gift of Mrs Joan Hague (the artist's daughter) to H.S. Ede, c.1974.