The Mystery Of Arthur Cousins’ Printers


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‘A tribute to the pioneers and masters of printing who through 500 years have perpetuated and adorned the written word, spreading far and wide the rich currency of ideas, knowledge & understanding’

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Who can name the printers featured in this epic wooden relief carving by Arthur Cousins in 1951? I have made some suggestions below but I call upon the superior knowledge of my readers to identify them all.

The origin of this panel, which was acquired by anthropologist & collector Dr Kaori O’Connor at a sale room in the eighties, is a mystery too. Dr O’ Connor understood it came from the office of a print union. Can anyone enlighten us further or tell us more about Arthur Cousins?

On the far left is the profile of a Chinese printer with a chronological sequence of figures from the history of printing in the West arranged from left to right. I think I identify William Morris and Eric Gill on the right, but those of earlier periods are unknown to me, although I recognise the gods Minerva and Mercury presiding overhead.

Readers may recall that it was Dr O’Connor who rescued Cecil Osborne’s murals, commissioned for St Pancras Town Hall, in a similar enlightened fashion from a general sale at Christies in South Kensington, and thanks to her initiative they have been reinstalled in the Town Hall again.

Now Dr O’Connor wants to find a permanent home for Arthur Cousins’ wooden relief of printers where it can be seen publicly. It is approximately eight feet wide by six feet high and carved into a block of oak a couple of inches thick.

If any of my readers can help, please drop me a line to spitalfieldslife@gmail.com and I will forward your message to Dr O’Connor.

William Morris is seated on the left with Eric Gill holding a tablet on the right. Is that Clement Attlee standing behind Morris and who are the two men in the middle?

Who are these Early Modern printers? Could one be William Caslon?

Is that William Caxton standing to the right. Who are these Renaissance printers?

Arthur Cousins, 1951

You may also like to read about

Cecil Osborne’s Murals

A Door in Cornhill

Dorothy Annan’s Murals

The Bakers of Widegate St



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