Joan Hassall and the Tree of Knowledge

This week on the Secret Library Leeds, Library and Digital Assistant Philip Wilde celebrates the life and enduring legacy of a little-known artist – with a surprising connection to Leeds and Leeds Libraries….

Going through the correspondence of former Leeds City Librarian, F. G. B. Hutchings – Frederick George Baxendale, usually known as Fred or Hutch to his friends – I happened upon a pair of short letters that caught my attention.

The first letter dated 19^th February 1953, was written by Fred to Joan Hassall complimenting her on the ‘strikingly successful’ illustrations that she had done for a copy of ‘The Brontë Story – A reconsideration of Mrs. Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë – written by Margaret Lane.[i]

Among so many which are good I cannot help having one or two favourites: one which proceeds the chapter on “The taste of fame” has all the right quality of exhaustion and sadness which can follow success. I think my second favourite is that of Branwell at the head of chapter 10. But there are so many good ones that it is invidious of me to be making distinctions and I just want you to know how much I admire this work of yours.

He continues that as it is part of his duty ‘to ensure the development of a comprehensive collection of Leeds and Yorkshire history …’ would it be possible for her to send him some copies of the engravings pulled from the original blocks.

He ends his letter with a tantalising and mysterious piece of information.

With the engraving you did for the Libraries still in use, it never fails to give me pleasure.

I must profess that at the time I was in complete ignorance as to who Joan Hassall was however, following some research I discovered her to be a most interesting character and an artist of no little distinction with a considerable body of work to her name. Of course, she was so prolific in her output I could not have failed to have seen numerous examples of her work. Born in 1906 she was the daughter of the artist John Hassall, most famous for his Jolly Fisherman poster, “Skegness is so bracing”. Throughout her colourful and varied career she excelled in the art of wood engraving. She was also a painter, typographer and teacher and is considered to be one of the most significant wood-engravers of the 20th century. Her talents as a wood engraver brought her a commission from Queen Elizabeth II to draw the invitation card for the five-year-old Prince Charles to attend his mother’s Coronation in 1953. A delightful piece that he must have loved. In 1972 Joan was elected the first woman Master of the Art Worker’s Guild and in 1987, a year before her death, she was awarded the OBE.

A dozen items either about her or containing her work are to be found in our library catalogue including the Brontë story mentioned by Fred Hutchings. Upon retrieval of this book I was able to see for myself the illustrations he refers to which were indeed engravings full of the sentiment and, at times, darkly foreboding atmosphere that one might expect from a tale relating to the successes and misfortunes that were associated with the lives of the Brontës.

The request by Fred Hutchings that he may acquire some ‘pulls’ of the original engravings was, sadly, not to be fulfilled. In reply to Fred’s letter, dated some few days later on 23 February 1953, Joan Hassall, extending her thanks and appreciation for his kind words, explains that it would not be possible to offer proofs of her work as they “are drawings on scraper board and not engravings”.[ii]

Returning, though, to the ‘tantalising and mysterious piece of information’ I referred to earlier – the engraving which had been done for the library by Joan Hassall. We were keen to discover what exactly this had been. My first thought was that it may have been the splendid engraving for the ‘City of Leeds Public Libraries’ book plate that adorn the inside front cover of so many of our early books. Here, using the Leeds City coat of arms the bookplate contains the motto Pro Rege et Lege beneath the two crowned owls that support the arms, all being surrounded by acanthus leaves. However, I discovered that this bookplate had been in use here at the library from the very early part of the twentieth century. Far too early for it to have been produced by Joan Hassall.

After giving the matter some thought I recalled something I had first observed a number of years ago which would quite possibly fit precisely into the timeline of the two letters. Upon retrieval, there, decorating the front cover of a catalogue produced by the Leeds Public Library entitled ‘The Book Guide’, was an engraving. As with the bookplate this design had two grand owls this time supporting an opened book against the trunk of a tree bearing fruit. Flowers and a rabbit at its base. A boy sits in the branches having picked one of the fruits. Nothing forbidden here.

Started in 1947 The Book Guide was a frequent publication having eighty-one editions over a period of eight years. The front cover of each edition has a variation of the same beautifully executed engraving. However, as with the earlier bookplate there was no indication as to who had produced this wonderful piece. Every edition apart from the first contains no other information besides the lists of new books acquired by the library. It is in the first edition, published in November 1947 that we obtain the information we have been looking for.

At the beginning of the November guide there is the one and only ‘Introduction’ to be found in the entire series. Here, the Chairman of the Libraries and Arts Committee, Alderman Arthur Adamson, expresses his hope that the guide will be of great use to the readers and that they

like the wise old birds in Joan Hassall’s cover design, find shelter under the Tree of Knowledge and enjoyment in its tempting fruit.[iii]

It is remarkable to think that not only did she illustrate a huge array of books, including Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns, Mary Webb and many of The Saltire Chapbooks but that she also made time to do an intricate and beautiful wood engraving for us here at the Leeds Libraries.