Agnes Miller Parker 

(Irvine, Ayrshire 1895-1980 Greenock, Scotland)

Siamese Cat, 1949

coloured wood engraving on Basingwerk Parchment

printed by Shenval Press for Image Quarterly, supervised by Robert Harling, 1949

sheet size: 25.4 x 17.8 cm.

image size: 10.2 x 12.7 cm.

Originally created by the artist in 1939, this version was printed from her original block ten years later in 1949, and supervised to a high quality by Robert Harling for the Image Quarterly (a journal by Shenval Press), of which few examples survive today.

Miller Parker worked in oil and tempera but made her name as an illustrator thanks to a collaboration with H.E. Bates on two iconic wood engraved books published by Victor Gollancz, ‘Through the Woods’ (1936), and ‘Down the River’ (1937).

She studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1911-1917, and in 1918 married the painter, William McCance (1894-1970), with whom she would move to London.