Elizabeth Greenhill (bookbinder)
Elizabeth Greenhill | |
---|---|
Born | Christine Elizabeth Florence Greenhill 4 May 1907 Paris, France |
Died | 30 December 2006 London, England | (aged 99)
Nationality | British |
Education | |
Alma mater | Central School of Arts and Crafts |
Occupation | Bookbinder |
Years active | 1927–1984 |
Christine Elizabeth Florence Greenhill (4 May 1907 – 30 December 2006) was an English bookbinder. She did bookbinding following her encouragement from her sister to enrol on bookbinding classes until the
Early life and education
She was born Christine Elizabeth Florence Greenhill into a wealthy family visiting Paris on 4 May 1907.[1][2] Greenhill was the daughter of the hoteliers Charles Greenhill and Florence Roach.[3] Her paternal grandfather was the German hotelier Karl Grunhold.[1] Greenhill had an elder sister who went on to become a painter and an older brother.[3] As what happened with other families of the time, the family changed their surname to Greenhill during the First World War.[1]
She had little experience in school;[1] Greenhill was first educated at Bedales School in Hampshire and first gained experience in using materials inside the workshop of the bookbinder O.S Powell.[2][3] She went on to spend a few months at a boarding school in Florence in Italy.[1][3] Greenhill learnt bookbinding and calligraphy at Roehampton's Sacred Heart Convent (today the Digby Stuart College).[3] She subsequently took bookbinding classes under the French designer binder Pierre Legrain at Ecole des Arts Décoratifs pour Dames in Paris between 1925 and 1927 following encouragement from her sister to matriculate to the school.[2][3][4]
Career
Greenhill went back to London in 1927. She matriculated to the
In 1937, she established a workshop in
When the River Arno flooded in 1966, she flew to Florence twice to assist the British squad in a large, desolate hall at the Biblioteca Nazionale to repair thousands of books damaged by mud and water left from the floodwaters. Greenhill served as honorary secretary of the Guild of Contemporary Bookbinders from 1967 to 1974 before she was elected to a single term as the guild's first women president in 1975 and remained president until 1978.[1][2][3] She held Guild meetings in her drawing room and was appointed an honorary Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 1985.[1] The following year, K.D. Duval published the catalogue raisonne of her work Elizabeth Greenhill Bookbinder.[4][6] Greenhill retired from bookbindery in 1984 due to deteriorating eyesight.[3]
Death
On 30 December 2006, Greenhill died in a London nursing home at age 99.[3][5] She was unmarried.[1][2]
Approach and legacy
Greenhill made more than 100 bindings in the colours of blue, green, mauve and purple.[3] The Bodleian Library has held two collections of boxes relating to her life and career in its Libraries Repository since 2009. They include her works, personal correspondence and materials from 1935 to 1983.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Elizabeth Greenhill; Obituary". The Times. 30 January 2007. p. 54. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Elizabeth Greenhill". The Daily Telegraph. 23 January 2007. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Foot, Mirjam M. (23 January 2007). "Elizabeth Greenhill; Designer bookbinder". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-901953-08-7. Archivedfrom the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c "Archive of Elizabeth Greenhill". Bodleian Libraries. 2017. p. 2. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
- ^ "Database of Bookfindings". British Library. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021.