Gouache painting and proof for Purnell’s Bancroft Classics abridged edition of Jane Eyre.

Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre. Abridged.

Left to right:

Gouache painting and proof for Purnell’s Bancroft Classics abridged edition of Jane Eyre.

Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre. Abridged.

N.p., n.d.; First published in the Bancroft Classics series in 1967. Maidenhead, U.K.:

Purnell,

1975.

This original artwork, painted in gouache on cardboard, was created for a 1967 edition of Jane Eyre abridged for children. The painting was reproduced at a scale of approximately 75 percent, as we see in the proof that accompanies the artwork. (Under magnification, one can discern the roseate pattern of a four-color halftone composed in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink—CMYK.) The printed paper for the cover is larger than the book’s boards, as additional paper at the edges was needed for the turn-ins.

From the collection of Rare Book School