Smith (Percy John Delf, British artist-soldier, printmaker, calligrapher and book designer, 1882-1948) Collection of 19 original preliminary drawings for "Twelve Drypoints of the War 1914-1918", including five pen and ink with wash, 13 black chalk and pencil, and one etching re-worked with black chalk and pencil, on various papers, some inscriptions and dates, two presented in card slips with 'Return to/ Percy Smith/ 27 Rudell Crescent/ NW3' inscribed to upper covers, various sizes between approx. 100 x 145 mm (4 x 5 3/4 in) and 190 x 250 mm (7 1/2 x 9 7/8 in), occasional minor handling creases and old folds, some surface dirt, slightly rough edges to some, a few laid onto support, all unframed, circa 1914-1918; together with Twelve Drypoints of the War 1914-1918, including 11 drypoint etchings only (of 12), lacking no. "V", 'The Long and Winding Way', all inscribed and signed in pencil, each platemark approx. 150 x 200 mm (5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in), or the reverse, each taped into contemporary mount, some staining to margins, presented in original portfolio case with artist's manuscript label to upper cover and two copies of William Rothenstein's "Note", inscribed in pencil 'Set No. 6', folio, Colnaghi & Co., 1925

Provenance: Private collection (bought in the late 1990s)

⁂ An important archival collection of working drawings and studies for Smith's "Twelve Drypoints of the War". Including an almost complete set of the drypoints in original portfolio, one of only 12 sets that were printed, of which only 10 were for sale.

"Percy Delf Smith arrived on the Western Front in late 1916 where he was posted to the Somme with the Royal Marines as a gunner. Shortly after his arrival he began sketching without authorisation. This activity was quickly noticed. Nevertheless, Captain High Boffey, who was Smith's superior, allowed him to continue. Smith however, seemingly unsatisfied with only producing rough sketches, changed his tactics in early 1917. [His parents sent him a] parcel [...] made up of the usual, letters and magazines from home. But within the magazine pages, [they] had managed to smuggle copper etching plates to their son. And so Smith began what he referred to as his 'Thiepval etchings'." Incredibly, it is believed that Smith used steel gramophone needles, a common feature in the trenches, to mark his plates. [Imperial War Museum, "Percy Delf Smith: Making Art as a Soldier on the Western Front"]

"Few men living handle the needle to such purpose, and with so sincere an object, as the author of the plates here published" [William Rothenstein, "Note" to Twelve Drypoints of the War 1914-1918, 1925]