Some engravings by Stephen Gooden
This page shows my small collection of Stephen Gooden's designs engraved on copper, which are shown below in chronological order. The bookplates I own are show on a separate page here.
The coding system I have used for his designs is shown on the catalogue page for his designs for bookplates, labels, coats-of-arms and devices.
E7: The Magi
Date: 1926
Plate size: 59 x 135 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 7
States: three states
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This engraving is signed and dated 'STEPHEN GOODEN 1928' in the lower right margin and was used by Sir Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982) as his Christmas card in 1928 and again in 1947 (shown here). Keynes was an important patron of Gooden and as well as commissioning his own bookplate (B8), he commissioned Gooden to design two bookplates for the Royal College of Surgeons (B37, B38), the last that Gooden designed before his death.
E8: Robert Acres
Date: 1927
Plate size: 60 x 48 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 8
States: only state
Proofs: 12
Notes: This is a portrait engraved in zinc of Mona Gooden, the artist's wife, in fancy dress. Robert or 'Bob' Acres is a Quack Doctor in Sheridan's play, 'The Rivals'.
I68: Title page of Volume 1 of The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine
Date: 1931
Plate size: 218 x 130 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944):68
States: two states
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is a signed proof of a copper plate engraving of the title page of volume 1 of The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine, translated by Edward Marsh and published in an edition of 525 copies by William Heinemann in the UK and by Random House in the USA. This is a proof printed on laid paper, extra to the published book. It is illustrated at 60% of the size of the other engravings shown here.
E12: MR W.H.
Date: 1931
Plate size: 95 x 64 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944):128
States: two states
Proofs: 12
Notes: This is another engraved portrait of Mona Gooden, the artist's wife, in fancy dress. It was designed as a Frontispiece for an edition of Shakespeare's sonnets to be published in the USA, but has not been found in any book.
I99: Cock and Key
Date: 1932
Plate size: 73 x 83 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 99
States: three states
Proofs: 15
Notes: This is the Headpiece to Chapter 3 of the book Perronik the Fool by George Moore (Harrap, 1933).
E13: Boy and snail
Date: 1932
Plate size: 51 x 114 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 13
States: only state
Proofs: Unknown
Notes: This design was used on catalogues of Gooden's prints shown at the Ulysses Book Shop in London in 1932 and on the catalogue of an exhibition arranged by Bertram Rota, another book-dealer, in 1933. The number of proofs printed from the plate is not recorded in Dodgson (1944).
Thanks to MH, to whom I gave this proof.
L1: Hertfordshire Art Society
Date: 1938
Plate size: 137 x 84 mm
Paper size: 150 x 98 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 154
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is an award label rather than a bookplate. The society held its first exhibition in 1889 at Hertford but seems to have died out during the Second World War.
I120: The Three Kings
Date: 1939
Plate size: 113 x 89 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 120
States: only state
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is an engraved frontispiece to The Gift of the Magi, a short story by O.Henry published by Harrap (1940) in a limited edition of 105 copies of which 100 were for sale. I have the copy of the book that Gooden gave to his mother at Christmas, 1939.
I122: Mask, flute and grapes
Date: 1940
Plate size: 70 x 57 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 122
States: only state
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is a vignette on a half title for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by E. FitzGerald (Harrap, 1940) published in a limited edition of 125 copies.
I121: Frontispiece
Date: 1940
Plate size: 151 x 100 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 121
States: only state
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is an illustration for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by E. FitzGerald (Harrap, 1940) published in a limited edition of 125 copies.
I124: 'Lo! Some we loved . . . crept silently to rest'
Date: 1940
Plate size: 151 x 100 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 124
States: two states
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is an illustration for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by E. FitzGerald (Harrap, 1940) published in a limited edition of 125 copies.
I125: 'Annihilation's waste'
Date: 1940
Plate size: 151 x 100 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 125
States: two states
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is an illustration for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by E. FitzGerald (Harrap, 1940) published in a limited edition of 125 copies.
E20: Cock
Date: 1940
Plate size: 127 x 89 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 20
States: only state
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This was intended for a headpiece of the book Omar Khayyam but was not used. Another version with a landscape aspect ratio and a cock plus two stalks of wheat was designed and used for a headpiece on page 13 (CD, 123).
E23: Old Whisk
Date: 1940
Plate size: 60 x 86 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 23
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This was not published or issued in any known edition. The proof shown was given to friends. He has signed it 'Stephen Gooden A.R.A.', as an Associate of the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate on 27th April 1937 and made a full Academician on 25th April 1946.
A1: The British Council
Date: 1941
Plate size: 125 x 100 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 181
Proofs: unknown
Notes: In 1934 the British Council for Relations with Other Countries was established to promote British culture abroad, a name that was shortened to British Council in 1936. In 1940 it was granted a Royal Charter, and in 1941 gained a coat of arms and the council commissioned this design from Stephen Gooden.
Am I imagining it or is there a penis sticking out of the groin of the lion on the right?. Click on the image to enlarge it.
E24: Triton
Date: 1941
Plate size: 175 x 125 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 24
Proofs: unknown
Notes: This is a good example of both Stephen Gooden's skill as an engraver and his wonderful imagination.
This engraving is reproduced at 70% of the size of the other engravings here.
E25: Cupid
Date: 1941
Plate size: 95 x 62 mm
Campbell Dodgson (1944): 182
Proofs: 12
Notes: This engraving was used by Stephen Gooden as a Christmas card. I have a proof pasted onto blue paper which he gave to his mother at Christmas in 1941.
A2: Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Date: 1947
Plate size: 175 x 125 mm
Paper size: 278 x 298 mm
State: 1 of 2
Campbell Dodgson (1944): after 1944
Notes: This is the coat of arms of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, granted in 1939. It shows: a horse chained to a globe, signifying controlled power dominating the world; a coronet around the horse’s neck, signifying a chartered body; Archimedes, to the left of the shield, symbolising science; Vulcan, to the right of the shield, symbolising craftsmanship; the callipers on the shield, signify the act of measurement and the accuracy of workmanship; and the word ‘Progress’ beneath the shield has been used by the Institution at different times since it was founded. It may have been designed for the History of the Institution, published in 1947 to mark its centenary.
This is the first state of the design. In the second state both feet of the horse are on the globe, presumably better to indicate controlled power.
The first state of this engraving was submitted by Gooden to the Royal Academy as his Diploma Work.
