The Story of Bovril

1953

Special Collections HD 9011.9 B68 BF36. Reproduced by permission of the Robert Gibbings Estate and the Heather Chalcroft Literary Agency

[London]: Bovril Limited

Developed at the end of the 19th century by Scotsman John Lawson Johnston, Bovril, ‘beef tea’, was an easily transported and compact foodstuff made into a nourishing drink by adding hot water. Gibbings received the commission for this work in 1952 and had to rush to complete all the work himself as his assistant, Ralph Beedham, was a strict vegetarian and refused to work on the wood blocks. Gibbings researched images at the Royal Geographic Society to create the frontispiece of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance – Bovril was a welcome hot drink for the Antarctic explorers when they were stranded on Elephant Island. 5000 copies of the volume were produced with nineteen wood engravings by Gibbings. The books were not for sale but were distributed by the company.