Cockle Shells
Danny Pierce.
Cockle Shells. Kent, Wash.: Red Door Studio, [1991]. 43 x 33 cm.
Call Number: (BKRT)(FOP) N 6537 .P4 A4 1991
COLOPHON: This book-folio is the 17th title of limited edition books by Danny Pierce. The text is printed on Basingwerk heavyweight paper made in England, using 18 pt. Spartan Black. The vignette figures are woodcuts. The illustrations also are original woodcuts printed from the blocks on Stonehenge, a 100% rag paper made in the U.S. by the Rising Paper Company. The endpapers are Canson Mi Teintes, machine-made in France by Canson et Montgolfier. The ink was manufactured by Leber Inks, a subsidiary of the United States Printing Ink Corporation. All composition, presswork, and binding are by the artist-author.
"Another one in the Man, Horse, and Sea series. I began making contacts in Wales before retiring from teaching but it wasn't until seven years later that we saw the cockle gatherers at work. Unfortunately horses were no longer used. Pickups or other mechanical vehicles are used. I missed seeing the horse and cart by two years. Except for this change the gathering of cockles has not differed from the days when it began. Through the official in charge of the Fisheries, I contacted one cockle gatherer, retired, and he introduced me to a younger man who took me out with him to show me how it's done. There were plenty of carts left neglected in the fields for me to photograph and many of the horses roaming loose on the tidal marshes. I had no trouble doing the book as I originally planned."