David Jones

The set of five wood engravings, 1927, each signed in pencil, from the edition of 20, each dated 27 in pencil, four plates inscribed Illustration to Deluge, one plate inscribed 9th illustration to Deluge, on japan paper

The Golden Cockerel Press, Berkshire, where two of the engravings were purchased by Leonard Elmhirst, 4th November 1927
Gifted by Leonard Elmhirst to The Dartington Hall Trust, 20th November 1971

London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1955 (details untraced);
London, National Book League, Exhibition of Paintings, Engravings and Writings of David Jones, 1972, cat. no.46, p.7 and 43, illustrated pl.3;
Manchester, Manchester Cathedral, David Jones, 18th November - 8th December 1976, cat. nos.46 and 47 (another edition);
London, Tate Gallery, David Jones, 21st July - 6th September 1981, cat. no.10, p.73 (The Dove, another edition);
London, Wolseley Fine Arts, The Art of David Jones in the 1920s, 1992, cat. no.21 (another edition);
London, Wolseley Fine Arts, David Jones: A Centenary Exhibition, 25th October - 25th November 1995, cat. nos.92 and 93 (another edition);
London, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, David Jones, cat. nos.100 and 101, illustrated p.41 (another edition);
Walterstone, Monnow Valley Arts Centre, David Jones, 2008, cat. no.28, p.13 (another edition).

J. Isaacs (intro.), Golden Cockerel Press, The Chester Play of the Deluge, 1927;
Sir Kenneth Clark, David Jones (Penguin Modern Painters), Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1949, p.10, illustrated pl.8;
Douglas Cleverdon, The Engravings of David Jones: A Survey, 1981;
Paul Hills, David Jones, Tate Gallery Publications Department, London, 1981, p.32 and illustrated p.73 (The Dove);
Nicolete Gray, The Paintings of David Jones, John Taylor/Lund Humphries in association with Tate Gallery Publications, 1989, p.21.

With wide margins, in generally good condition apart from pale mount-staining, occasional slight creasing in margins, hinge tape in upper corners showing through due to the nature of the paper, very occasional pale foxmarks, 'The Dove' also with a diagonal crease at lower left image, other creasing in the margins, sheet glued to mount along upper edge of sheet verso causing cockling mainly in upper sheet, each unframed.
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"The flood comes in fleeting fast; On every side it speadeth full fare; For fear of drowning I am agast; Good gossip, let us draw near" (Noah urging his wife to board the Ark, from The Chester Play of the Deluge). 

The Deluge is the most well known of The Chester Plays, which date back to at least the early part of the 15th century. Their origins lie in the Mystery Plays that emerged in Europe from the 13th century, which celebrated biblical texts from Creation to the Last Judgement for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Under the reign of Elizabeth I they were seen as 'Popery' and banned. Until their modern revival the last recorded performance took place in 1575.

In Jones' treatment of The Deluge, his development as a wood-engraver finds full expression in the series of superb illustrations, described by Douglas Cleverdon as a "masterpiece in the field of wood-engraving...with an intensity of vision that recalls William Blake" (Douglas Cleverdon, The Engravings of David Jones: A Survey, 1981). In early 1927, the same year he joined the Society of Wood Engravers, Jones returned to Caldey Island to stay with the Benedictine monks for a few months. If weather conditions prohibited him painting outside, he would work in the scriptorium of the monastery where very likely he engraved the ten blocks of the Chester Play of the Deluge, published by the Golden Cockerell Press later that year.