Paul Nash ‘Dorset: Shell Guide’ 1936 First Edition
Paul Nash’s 1936 Shell Guide to Dorset is one of the most scarce and desirable titles from The Shell Guides to Britain series and considered to be the best of the pre-war examples. Writing in Issue 10 of the British Art Studies Journal, art historian Anna Reid writes "Dorset was a revelation for Nash, as presented in the artist’s 1936 Dorset: Shell Guide, one of a series produced for motorists, which closely articulates his sense of the landscape as a geological and surrealist object. In it, he describes seeing “Charlbury at twilight—cut against the afterglow, as to experience an almost unnerving feeling of the latent force of the past.”
Reference: Anna Reid, "Paul Nash’s Geological Enigma", British Art Studies, Issue 10, https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-10/areid
The seventh guide in the iconic series edited initially by John Betjeman, Paul Nash’s Dorset guide includes the artist’s written response to the history, architecture and geology of Dorset, his black & white photographs of the landscape reproduced on peach coloured paper, as well as reproductions of images by other artists, including a photograph by John Piper, a single page Shell advert designed by Edward Bawden and 2 colour maps.
“Having been invited to compile the Shell Guide for Dorset The Nashes moved to Whitecliff Farm, just outside Swanage, in 1934. They later moved into Swanage itself. During the next year Nash worked extensively on the guide He took over 250 photographs of Dorset, some of which are illustrated in the guide, the others he used as a visual reminder when he came to write the gazetteer. His photographs are backed up by watercolours of certain sites, which, he writes, ‘ illustrate certain aspects of the scene which the camera could not satisfactorily record.’ Nash also wrote most of the guide, including descriptions of Dorset’s geology, industries, language and food. […] The Dorset Shell Guide is much more than just a guide to Dorset; some would say that it is not even that, for, as Nash explains in his introduction, he has selected from the land’s wealth of facts and features only those which seem peculiar to itself’. He bypasses the obvious in both his descriptions and his illustrations, making a very personal selection of landmarks and landscapes which becomes almost a gazetteer of his art.” – Clare Colvin, Paul Nash Book Designs, The Minories, Colchester, 1982, p.65.
Title: Dorset: Shell Guide
Author: Paul Nash, John Betjemen (series editor)
Publisher: Architectural Press, London
Date of Publication: 1936 First Edition
Format: Original Spiro Wire Binding and photographic card covers
Pages: 46pp
Condition: Moderate wear including creasing and small losses to covers; lower portion of cover detached from binding; small areas of skinning to pages 34-39.
Stock Number: RB03820
Paul Nash’s 1936 Shell Guide to Dorset is one of the most scarce and desirable titles from The Shell Guides to Britain series and considered to be the best of the pre-war examples. Writing in Issue 10 of the British Art Studies Journal, art historian Anna Reid writes "Dorset was a revelation for Nash, as presented in the artist’s 1936 Dorset: Shell Guide, one of a series produced for motorists, which closely articulates his sense of the landscape as a geological and surrealist object. In it, he describes seeing “Charlbury at twilight—cut against the afterglow, as to experience an almost unnerving feeling of the latent force of the past.”
Reference: Anna Reid, "Paul Nash’s Geological Enigma", British Art Studies, Issue 10, https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-10/areid
The seventh guide in the iconic series edited initially by John Betjeman, Paul Nash’s Dorset guide includes the artist’s written response to the history, architecture and geology of Dorset, his black & white photographs of the landscape reproduced on peach coloured paper, as well as reproductions of images by other artists, including a photograph by John Piper, a single page Shell advert designed by Edward Bawden and 2 colour maps.
“Having been invited to compile the Shell Guide for Dorset The Nashes moved to Whitecliff Farm, just outside Swanage, in 1934. They later moved into Swanage itself. During the next year Nash worked extensively on the guide He took over 250 photographs of Dorset, some of which are illustrated in the guide, the others he used as a visual reminder when he came to write the gazetteer. His photographs are backed up by watercolours of certain sites, which, he writes, ‘ illustrate certain aspects of the scene which the camera could not satisfactorily record.’ Nash also wrote most of the guide, including descriptions of Dorset’s geology, industries, language and food. […] The Dorset Shell Guide is much more than just a guide to Dorset; some would say that it is not even that, for, as Nash explains in his introduction, he has selected from the land’s wealth of facts and features only those which seem peculiar to itself’. He bypasses the obvious in both his descriptions and his illustrations, making a very personal selection of landmarks and landscapes which becomes almost a gazetteer of his art.” – Clare Colvin, Paul Nash Book Designs, The Minories, Colchester, 1982, p.65.
Title: Dorset: Shell Guide
Author: Paul Nash, John Betjemen (series editor)
Publisher: Architectural Press, London
Date of Publication: 1936 First Edition
Format: Original Spiro Wire Binding and photographic card covers
Pages: 46pp
Condition: Moderate wear including creasing and small losses to covers; lower portion of cover detached from binding; small areas of skinning to pages 34-39.
Stock Number: RB03820
Paul Nash’s 1936 Shell Guide to Dorset is one of the most scarce and desirable titles from The Shell Guides to Britain series and considered to be the best of the pre-war examples. Writing in Issue 10 of the British Art Studies Journal, art historian Anna Reid writes "Dorset was a revelation for Nash, as presented in the artist’s 1936 Dorset: Shell Guide, one of a series produced for motorists, which closely articulates his sense of the landscape as a geological and surrealist object. In it, he describes seeing “Charlbury at twilight—cut against the afterglow, as to experience an almost unnerving feeling of the latent force of the past.”
Reference: Anna Reid, "Paul Nash’s Geological Enigma", British Art Studies, Issue 10, https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-10/areid
The seventh guide in the iconic series edited initially by John Betjeman, Paul Nash’s Dorset guide includes the artist’s written response to the history, architecture and geology of Dorset, his black & white photographs of the landscape reproduced on peach coloured paper, as well as reproductions of images by other artists, including a photograph by John Piper, a single page Shell advert designed by Edward Bawden and 2 colour maps.
“Having been invited to compile the Shell Guide for Dorset The Nashes moved to Whitecliff Farm, just outside Swanage, in 1934. They later moved into Swanage itself. During the next year Nash worked extensively on the guide He took over 250 photographs of Dorset, some of which are illustrated in the guide, the others he used as a visual reminder when he came to write the gazetteer. His photographs are backed up by watercolours of certain sites, which, he writes, ‘ illustrate certain aspects of the scene which the camera could not satisfactorily record.’ Nash also wrote most of the guide, including descriptions of Dorset’s geology, industries, language and food. […] The Dorset Shell Guide is much more than just a guide to Dorset; some would say that it is not even that, for, as Nash explains in his introduction, he has selected from the land’s wealth of facts and features only those which seem peculiar to itself’. He bypasses the obvious in both his descriptions and his illustrations, making a very personal selection of landmarks and landscapes which becomes almost a gazetteer of his art.” – Clare Colvin, Paul Nash Book Designs, The Minories, Colchester, 1982, p.65.
Title: Dorset: Shell Guide
Author: Paul Nash, John Betjemen (series editor)
Publisher: Architectural Press, London
Date of Publication: 1936 First Edition
Format: Original Spiro Wire Binding and photographic card covers
Pages: 46pp
Condition: Moderate wear including creasing and small losses to covers; lower portion of cover detached from binding; small areas of skinning to pages 34-39.
Stock Number: RB03820
