30 NOVEMBER 1951, Page 18

44 The Library of Great Painters 55

Sut,—Might I draw your attention to an error in Professor Pevsner's review of our three new art books in the Spectator of November 16th. Professor Pevsner states that " these [books] on Greco, Renoir and van Gogh [are produced] in the United States" ; and in the-next sentence: "The colour work of the three American books is excellent. . . ." In - actual fact, except for the authorship of the texts, these books are entirely produced in England, and the production details are given on the last page of each book. The blocks, with one or two;exceptions, were made by Fine Art Engravers, Ltd. Special teams of photographers went to Spain and elsewhere to re-photograph the 150 subjects repre- sented The adventures of the team that went to Spain would almost make a book in themselves. The Renoir plates were printed by Messrs. W. S. Cowell Ltd. at Ipswich the remaining colour plates by Messrs. Jarrold and Sons Ltd. at Norwich. The printing of the text and the binding were throughout executed by Messrs. Jarrold. It might also be inferred from Professor Pevsner's review that my firm is American instead of English. -

Since these books go some way towards proving that we in this country can more than hold our own with Continental colour printers, I should much appreciate it if you would publish a correction to Professor Pevsner's statements, if only to gratify the justifiable vanity of the process engravers and printers concerned—not to mention that of my own final—Yours sincerely, Davin Ascou, Director.