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Ralph John Beedham (1879-1975), occupies a unique position in the history of twentieth century wood engraving. He was a formschneider, probably the last person in England to serve an apprenticeship as a professional reproductive wood engraver. ==Biography== Beedham was born in 1879 in Whitecross Street, Cripplegate, London, and, at the age of 13, was apprenticed for six years to an old established firm of wood engravers, Hare & Company in Essex Street, Strand. By the end of his apprenticeship he found that the skills that he had acquired had been replaced by photo-mechanical processes of reproduction of images.〔Albert Garrett, ''A History of British Wood Engraving'' (Tunbridge Wells, Midas Press, 1978), ISBN 0-85936-077-6.〕 He was one of three professional reproductive wood engravers who found that he could use his skills for teaching. He taught evening classes in wood engraving at the London County Council School of Photo-engraving and Lithography in Bolt Court, where he taught, among others, Noel Rooke, Joan Hassall, Mabel Alleyne and Diana Bloomfield. The other two were Bernard Sleigh, who taught at the Birmingham School of Printing, and W.T. Smith, who taught at the Slade.〔James Hamilton, ''Wood Engraving and the Woodcut in Britain c1890-1990'' (London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1994), ISBN 0-7126-9866-3.〕 He was a lifelong vegetarian, and found it impossible to work on the blocks that Robert Gibbings was engraving for ''The History of Bovril''.〔Martin J. Andrews, ''The Life and Work of Robert Gibbings'' (Bicester, Primrose Hill Press, 2003), ISBN 1-901648-31-1.〕 He carried on engraving to the age of 83, and died in 1975, his ashes buried in the graveyard at Brill, Buckinghamshire, where he spent the final years of his life. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「R. John Beedham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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