The Woodcut Society (1932-1954), based in Kansas City and founded by Alfred Fowler, a grain broker and bibliophile, published two prints each year. Issued in editions of 200, they were distributed to subscribers, who paid a ten-dollar annual membership fee. The organization focused on woodcuts and wood engravings exclusively. The artists commissioned for the Woodcut Society offerings included many of the best-known and accomplished print makers from America and abroad.
The prints were presented in handsome folders containing a short essay written by a noted print authority or, in some instances, the artist. The presentation folders, wonderful specimens of typography and printing in their own right, were embellished with ornaments appearing on the title and colophon, some of which were printed from blocks carved by the artist whose print the folder contained.
The type of collector that joined organizations like the Woodcut Society would have appreciated the preciosity with which these productions were imbued. Such collectors often had a deep interest in printmaking and its history and possessed a developed set of connoisseurship skills. They likely preferred to enjoy prints within the meditative environment of their library or study, where they could keep them in museum cases or a print cabinet, rather than displayed above the couch in their living room.
(courtesy of Associated American Artists: Art By Subscription by Bill North and Charlotte Gordon, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/9aa/9aa362.htm, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)
(top image, Swans by Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963), wood engraving, 5.6 cm (diameter) The second state was used as a Christmas greeting in 1932. Phillips reworked the original block into this medallion format to print on the Vista Lake presentation folio for the Kansas City 'Woodcut Society.' It appears on the folio, printed in red ink, beneath the title. Courtesy of Sharecom Industries Ltd, http://www.sharecom.ca/phillips/188a.html, accessed Sept. 29, 2012)
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