Vivien Gribble

Vivien Massie Gribble Doyle-Jones (1888 – 6 February 1932) was an English wood engraver who was active at the beginning of the 20th century.

She was a pupil of Noel Rooke at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and exhibited regularly with the Society of Wood Engravers.

[3][4] Her mother was Norah Royds, a Slade-trained artist, whose murals still decorate Henlow Grange, notably the Peacock Room.

Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, wrote about her in his introduction to the book: Miss Gribble and Miss Pilkington are among the other women artists who practise wood engraving with zeal and success; the former is now turning her attention to book illustration, in which English engravers of the modern school have hitherto achieved smaller results that their contemporaries in France.

[13] This was a limited edition of 550 copies; Gribble worked with Balston to produce three more books at Duckworth in a similarly luxurious format.

The first was a 380 signed copy edition of Sixe Idillia by Theocritus, printed at the Cloister Press under the supervision of Stanley Morison.

Her final commission was her swan song; in 1926 MacMillan published an edition of Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy with 41 wood engravings by Gribble.

The final judgement goes to Douglas Percy Bliss, who wrote of the limitations of the black line style of Gribble and Rooke: If their work had more verve and vitality they would be among the best book -decorators of our time.