Joan Hassall

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Joan Hassall, (born 1906 in London, died 1988) was a wood engraver, book illustrator and typographer. She was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1987.

Hassall was the daughter of illustrator John Hassall and his second wife, Constance Brooke-Webb and attended The Royal Academy Schools from 1928 to 1933. She was influenced by Thomas Bewick.

Her first commissioned illustration was to engrave the title page of her brother, Christopher Hassall’s book of poems, Devil’s Dyke, subsequently illustrating works by Jane Austen, Trollope, Mrs Gaskell and Mary Russell Mitford and The Saltire Chapbooks, published by the Saltire Society in the 1940s..

Hassall also supplied the original engravings for the postage stamps issued in commemoration of the Royal Silver Wedding in 1948.