The young sketcher, Eric Thake, was out and about Melbourne in the early 1920s. Here the 20-year-old captures the action of Elizabeth Street.

| Eric Thake, House of Commons Hotel, 1924, National Gallery of Victoria |
A year later, a more earnest engraving.

| Eric Thake, The bathers, 1925 |
At the age of 14 Thake started working as a process engraver for a company in Richmond, so you can see his skill at an early age.
He attended classes at the National Gallery school in 1922 and to finish it all off studied part-time painting and drawing with George Bell.
He was a driven young thing who juggled the design world with the art world for the rest of his life.
In the 1930s he was a prolific bookplate maker.
And card maker.

| Eric Thake, Card, National Gallery of Australia |
Julia Ritson
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