EXTRACTS: illustrators issue 2 © 2012 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition))

6 construct. A framed painting by Fortunino Matania (one of Rogers’ biggest money spinners at the time) added to the tableaux of telephones, typewriters and neatly assembled ledgers. Despite the cramped conditions and hint of old world splendour, the office was ideally located at the heart of the city’s legal and journalistic professions with the Old Bailey and Fleet Street providing a heady mix of artists, writers, solicitors and journalists frequenting the many pubs and bars that surrounded the area. The ability to network effectively and build good working relationships with Fleet Street art editors was not lost on Wall and his sons. They knew their clientele and they also knew what sold. What soldwas not, however, the array of illustration samples of aeroplanes and American automobiles that dominated Wright’s portfolio when, with war clouds looming over Europe, he found himself heading down a narrow street to the cramped offices of Rogers and Co. As Jack Wall leafed through Mary Evans Picture Library BELOW: Wright’s mastery of light and staging comes to the fore in this exquisite example of a Wright ‘lovely’