The art of the printed book played an important part in the artistic life of Eric Thake. He was a keen book collector from his boyhood, and his apprentice years in a firm of commercial engravers exposed him to a wide range of reproductions and illustrations.
He later recalled that seeing the colour plates of Australian paintings in the journal Art and Australia was an important stimulus to his own work. With a collector's eye, he sought out and treasured the work of long-forgotten illustrators who had worked in the 'golden age' of Australian black-and-white illustration in the late 19th century. This style of illustration influenced Thakes's own use of strong black silhouettes in his work.
Melbourne in the middle years of the 20th century was not a lively centre for fine art book design and illustration. Thake's cover for Adrian Lawlor's Arquebus (1937) and his illustrations for Moby Dick (1934) are singular examples of what he might have done with more opportunities.
As a designer of elegant and witty bookplates Eric Thake gained recognition at an early age.
Linocut originals, reproduced here from their first publication in Desiderata: A Guide to Good Books.
Lawler's combative, and at times, explosive opinions about art are reflected in Thake's book cover. | 
