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No, don't panic you lot - you're not about to get a BIBLE lesson. Here's the scoop. Back around 1971 or '72 (certainly no earlier than 1970), my mother took me to a Town Centre shop by the name of W. &. R. HOLMES after school one day and bought me 'The Good Book'. (She'd told me earlier that morning of her intention, but I forgot and went to a pal's house, and my mother had to 'phone to remind me.) I no longer remember exactly what became of it, but I do recall inadvertently inflicting some damage to the cover under the dust-jacket, which bothered me somewhat.
A few years later, in 1976 or '77 (no later than '78), I saw its double in another local bookshop and, purely out of a sense of nostalgia, bought it for myself. I'd always been fascinated by the interior illustrations of JACK HAYES, a very talented artist. In my original copy, there was a note on the inside of the dust-jacket which said that a 4-colour photogravure process had been used to reproduce the colour plates, which, to my mind, rendered them almost photographic in appearance. (In my youthful ignorance I thought that's what 'photogravure' meant.)
And, to my eyes, it was true! I used to look at these plates and marvel at the fact they'd been created by human hands, rather than being (it seemed to me) captured by a camera. In my new copy there's no such note (being an edition from 1975), and the illustrations aren't quite so photographic as I seem to remember them being in my first copy, but they're still exceptional examples of artistic accomplishment.
When I bought the new edition, I no longer had my original so couldn't do a direct comparison, alas - but, like I say, there appeared to be a subtle difference (though it may've been my imagination). Still, it was great to see the pictures again after all this time. 'All this time'? In fact, it had only been about six years, but seemed like a lifetime away, such is the puzzling passage of time when one is still a relative youngster.
Anyway, I thought I'd share the illustrations with you here, just to push the parameters of this blog's content. Aren't they fantastic? I don't know much about the artist, apart from the fact that he did some paperback book covers, and some illustrations for LOOK & LEARN magazine by IPC. Let's hear your views about Jack Hayes' work in the ever-lovin' comments section.
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Looking at these pictures now, I'm back in the bedroom of my old house, so strong is the association in my mind between the illustrations and where I lived at the time. However, considering that I had this Bible for only around a year (perhaps approaching two at the very most) before we flitted elsewhere, I'm amazed that it now feels like I owned it for the entire 6 years 7 months I stayed there, rather than just the short period of time it actually was.
(Update:) Not counting the cover, there were 15 illustrations in my replacement Bible, though I've only just discovered that there were 17 in my original edition bought circa '71. Below is the intro on the flyleaf as I recall it (image sourced online), though the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs are absent from my late-'70s replacement copy; probably because, being a later printing, the 'first time' claim about the photogravure images no longer applied to this size of Bible.
The two absent illustrations were likely omitted due to the Church Hymnary being added, requiring the cost being offset by reducing the colour content. I've added them (in sequence) to the pictures above (3 & 4, ignoring the dustjacket), taken from a different edition only recently acquired on eBay. (Moroccoette, yapp, gilt edges, housed in a slipcase.) I'm amazed that I didn't realise before now that my late-'70s copy was 'missing' two images, as the moment I saw them again, I remembered them immediately.
Compare the spine below from an earlier dust-jacket (image sourced online) with the one at the top of the post - as you can see, the Church Hymnary isn't mentioned on the earlier version. And, since typing the previous sentence, I've now acquired a copy of the very same edition as the one I originally had - and can now confirm that the Church Hymnary was indeed not included.
However, astoundingly, I now see that my impression about the illustrations in my earlier edition seeming almost photographic was largely correct. There's one picture in particular that, when compared to its later printing, has a decidedly photographic aspect to it that isn't captured in its subsequent presentation. It's more pronounced in that one illustration, but can also be detected in some of the others, so I wasn't entirely imagining things back in the day. Whether there's a difference in the paper or the printing process between the two versions I'm not sure, but whatever the cause, there's definitely a discernible distinction 'twixt the two publications.
Below are two other Jack Hayes illos from two different issues of Bible Story.
