T. E. Lawrence – Seven Pillars of Wisdom – Cranwell Edition – Exhibition Notice – 1927: Rare 1927 Leicester Galleries notice advertising the exhibition of original artworks for T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom Cranwell Edition, one of the great private press books of the twentieth century.

London: The Leicester Galleries, Leicester Square, [January–February 1927].

Scarce exhibition notice issued to promote the Leicester Galleries exhibition of the original paintings, drawings and woodcuts created for the celebrated Cranwell (Subscribers’) Edition of T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, held from 5–19 February 1927.

The exhibition was organised immediately after publication of Lawrence’s magnificent privately printed Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), the edition now universally known as the Cranwell Edition, named after RAF Cranwell where Lawrence was stationed during its production. Printed privately for subscribers under Lawrence’s close supervision, the edition comprised 211 copies in total, including 170 complete subscriber copies, together with incomplete and presentation copies. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century British fine printing and private press production.

This notice announces an exhibition of the original artworks prepared for that edition, naming many of the principal contributors to the volume, including Augustus John, Eric Kennington, Paul Nash, William Roberts, Frank Dobson and William Rothenstein. The exhibition formed part of the public unveiling of the artistic programme surrounding Lawrence’s masterpiece and coincided with growing anticipation for the trade abridgement later issued as Revolt in the Desert (1927).

An attractive and ephemeral survival intimately connected with the publication history of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence’s most important work, and with one of the most celebrated illustrated books of the twentieth century.

Single sheet, printed recto only.

Size: 13.8 × 20.3 cm.

Condition: Near fine overall. Original vertical and horizontal folds as issued; light natural toning and a few trivial spots; clean and well preserved.

Institutional holdings of the related exhibition catalogue are recorded, but we have not traced a separate institutional catalogue entry for this individual exhibition notice. It is certainly highly uncommon in commerce and is apparently unrecorded institutionally as a separate item, though further specialist archival research may reveal examples preserved within larger Lawrence or Leicester Galleries collections.

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