- Museum number
- 1913,0415.203
- Title
- Object: India-Proofs of Wood-Engravings by The Brothers Dalziel
- Description
-
Album with hand-written title page: 'India-Proofs of Wood-Engravings by The Brothers Dalziel. General Work – Various. 1882 & 1883. This Book was made up at the time the engravings shown in it were done.' Half-bound in brown leather and gilt; lettering on spine reads 'Wood-Engravings by the Brothers Dalziel. XLII. Various Works. 1882-83'. The album includes approximately 1097 wood-engraved proofs, with many touched proofs. Following the title-page there is a contents page written by the Dalziels; this provides an extremely useful reference for publishers, titles and clients represented in the albums, although it is not necessarily a reliable finding aid. Throughout the album there are minimal notes in Dalziel's hand that occasionally give brief information such as delivery dates and working notes.
The volume includes book and periodical illustrations of all sorts, and commercial designs and advertisements. A few of the advertisements are colour printed. There are numerous comic, literary and children’s illustrations. There are fashion images, furniture, portraits, landscape and travel illustrations.
Individual prints include:
Nos. 5-7: three advertisements for Cadbury’s Cocoa. Nos. 5 & 7 are colour-printed from three colour blocks (yellow, red and navy), using an unconfirmed, perhaps mixed process. No. 6 is a larger, monochrome wood engraving.
Nos. 8-9: two colour blocks, printed separately in turquoise and navy, for an advertisement for ‘Moir’s Mock Turtle Soup’.
Nos. 12, 14-15,19-20, 54-55, 58-69: various commercial fashion illustrations after Charles Harrison, perhaps made for different companies. Harrison had previously made designs for Liberty’s department store and Clarke’s night lights.
Nos. 35-52: commercial images of chairs and textiles. Certainly the fabrics, and probably the furniture too, were commissions from Liberty & Co department store.
Nos. 74-273: illustrations after Francis Arthur Fraser for Mark Twain, ‘Roughing It and The Innocents at Home’ (London: George Routledge, 1882).
Nos. 275-311: illustrations after Francis Arthur Fraser for Henry Frith, ‘King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table’ (London: George Routledge, 1884 [1883]).
Nos. 312-353?: illustrations after various artists for an unidentified edition of Felicia Hemans, ‘Poetical Works’ (title in manuscript).
Nos. 419-422, 424, 458-459, 462-463, 466, 468-469, 484-485: pictorial covers, including after Harry Tuck, for titles in the ‘Notable Novels’ series published by Frederick Warne. These include three titles by Charles Dickens, three by Frederick Marryat, one by Charles Lever, one by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, two by Frederick Chamier, one by Arthur Sherburne Hardy (this one with alterations to the block printed alongside), and two by Alexandre Dumas.
No. 423: decorative cover, with blank space for titles to be added, for ‘The Colombia Library: American Copyright Literature’, a series published by Frederick Warne.
Nos. 460-461, 464-465, 486: other pictorial covers for uniform books published by Frederick Warne, advertised at ‘sixpence’. Titles include Metta Victoria Fuller [later Victor], ‘A Bad Boy’s Diary’, ‘The Blunders of a Bashful Man’, and ‘Miss Slimmens in Search of a Husband’; Frances M Whitcher, ‘The Widow Bedott Papers’; Mary Adams, ‘An Honourable Surrender’; Digby Dawson, ‘Mr Maudle’s Bedroom Lectures’; and John Habberton, ‘Helen’s Babies’.
Nos. 475-477: three illustrations titled in pencil in Dalziel’s hand, ‘Life of Nelson’. Probably for an unidentified edition of Robert Southey’s ‘Life of Nelson’.
No. 496: Pictorial cover, with a portrait of Queen Victorian, for ‘Warne’s Victorian Picture Spelling Book (London: Frederick Warne, [1883-1884])
Nos. 506-542: illustrations after Arthur B Frost for Lewis Carroll, ‘Rhyme and Reason’ (London: Macmillan, 1883). Book includes text and illustrations of ‘Phantasmagoria’. For other illustrations to this publication, see the next volume of the Dalziel Archive (reg. no. 1913,0415.202).
Nos. 545-608, 734-797?: numerous comic illustrations for the magazine ‘Hood’s Annual’, which was published by Dalziel.
No. 611: after a painting by Albert Maignan, ‘Le Sommeil de Fra Angelico’ or ‘The Dream of Fra Angelico’.
Nos. 619-655, 801-863: illustrations, including many of dragons, for Charles Gould, ‘Mythical Monsters’ (London: W. H. Allen, 1886).
Nos. 656-696: section headed ‘Illustrated London News’, and all these appear to be illustrations for that periodical.
No. 704: a line-block pictorial cover after an unidentified draughtsman (monogram ‘AB’), for ‘The Theatre Annual’, edited by Clement Scott (London: David Bogue, [1882-1884]).
Nos. 760-761: two line-block process prints signed ‘Joseph Swain’, the Dalziels’ main competitor in the wood engraving business. Presumably these are process reproductions by Dalziel of wood engravings by Swain.
No. 871: unusually, this is a hand-coloured proof, presumably in preparation for colour-printing or making colour blocks: pictorial cover to Arthur T Pask, ‘From Lock to Lock: A Playful Guide to the River Thames, from Teddington to Oxford’ ([London]: Judy Office, [1882]).
Nos. 873-973, 984-1064, 1067-1083: comic illustrations for the ‘Judy Annual’ and ‘Ally Sloper’, published by Dalziel. Ally Sloper was originally created by Charles H. Ross.
No. 974: illustrated cover for Ernest’s Griset’s ‘Fun’s Comical Creatures’, published by Dalziel (London: Fun Office, [n.d.]).
No. 975: A new logo for the Dalziel Brothers’ printing imprint, Camden Press.
- Producer name
-
Print made by: Dalziel Brothers (All)
-
Published by: F Warne & Co (Nos. 419-505?)
-
Published by: Routledge (Nos. 74-273, 275-311)
-
Published by: Macmillan & Co (Nos. 506-542)
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After: Frederick Barnard (Nos. 615-618(s))
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After: Valentine Walter Bromley (No. 702(s))
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After: Archibald Chasemore (Nos. 715-716(m))
-
After: Clayton & Bell (No. 800(s))
-
After: Edward Gurden Dalziel (Nos. 560-561(m), 605(m))
-
After: Lucien Davis (Nos. 599?(m), 603?(m))
-
After: Mary Ellen Edwards (Nos. 28(m), 354-358(m), 359?, 360-365 (queried print attributed on grounds of style and continuity))
-
After: Francis Arthur Fraser (Nos. 74-83(m), 84, 85-110(m), 111, 112(m), 113, 114-126(m), 127, 128-143(m), 144, 145-153(m), 154, 155-163(m), 164, 165-166(m), 167-168, 169-171(m), 172, 173(m), 174, 175-176(m), 177, 178(m), 179, 180-185(m), 186, 187-192(m), 193-195, 196-205(m), 206, 207(m), 208, 209-210(m), 211-212, 213(m), 214-216, 217-220(m), 221, 222(m), 223, 224(m), 226(m), 227, 228-233(m), 234, 235-236(m), 237, 238(m), 239, 240-246(m), 247, 248-255(m), 256, 257-262(m), 263-265, 266(m), 267-273, 275-277(m), 278, 279-281(m), 282, 283(m), 284, 285-292(m), 293, 294-302(m), 303, 304-306(m), 307, 308-309(m), 310-311, 401(m), 403-412(m), 438-451(m), 487-490(m))
-
After: Arthur Burdett Frost (Nos. 506-507(m), 508-515(s), 516, 517-536(m), 537, 538-539(m), 540, 540a(s), 541, 542(m))
-
After: Sir John Gilbert (No. 316? (this is late for Gilbert, but plausible. Attibuted on stylistic grounds))
-
After: Ernest Griset (Nos. 553-554(s), 743-744(m), 974)
-
After: W Gunston (Nos. 452-457(s))
-
After: C Harrison (Nos. 10-11, 12(m), 14(m), 15, 19-21(m), 22(s), 23?, 24-25(m), 54-55(m), 58-67(m), 68, 69(m), 697(m) (unsigned and queried prints attributed on grounds of style and context))
-
After: W Jones (Nos. 56-57(m))
-
After: Henry Stephen Ludlow (Nos. 317(s), 322(s), 344(s), 366(s), 429(s), 606(m), 658-664(s), 666-671(s), 676-678(s), 681(s), 685-688(s), 690(s), 692(s), 694-696(s), 864(s))
-
After: Albert Maignan (No. 611(s))
-
After: Georges Montbard (Nos. 679-680(s), 682-684(s))
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After: H Sanderson (Nos. 570-571, 572(m), 573-574, 575(m), 762-766, 767(m))
-
After: Matt Stretch (Nos. 541a-542a(s), 544(s), 558(m))
-
After: James Frank Sullivan (Nos. 546(m), 548(m), 551-552(m), 580-581(m), 582, 583-585(m), 734-735(m), 742(m), 754-755(m))
-
After: Joseph Swain (Nos. 760-761(s))
-
After: John Gordon Thomson (Nos. 545(m), 549(m), 562(m), 563, 564(m), 565, 736-737(m), 758-759(m) (unsigned prints attributed on grounds of style and continuity))
-
After: Harry Tuck (Nos. 459(m), 462-463(m), 466(m), 555, 556(s), 557, 753(m) (unsigned prints attributed on grounds of style and continuity))
-
After: Francis S Walker (Nos. 656-657(m), 672-675(m))
-
After: D T White (No. 703(s))
-
After: Joseph Wolf (No. 798(s))
-
After: Charles William Wyllie (Nos. 397-398(s))
- Production date
- 1882-1883
- Dimensions
-
Height: 448 millimetres (size of bound album)
-
Thickness: 66 millimetres (size of bound album)
-
Width: 299 millimetres (size of bound album)
- Curator's comments
- Catalogued by Bethan Stevens (University of Sussex) in partnership with the British Museum and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); digital photography by Sylph Editions, London (www.sylpheditions.com).
This is one in a series of 49 albums in the British Museum with proof impressions of wood-engravings by the Brothers Dalziel.
An overview of the album has been offered here, but it would be possible to identify more writers, titles, artists and publishers on inspection and with further research.
In many cases, designers have been listed for the wood-engravings. Where no attribution comments are given, evidence is clear and has been verified (e.g. through publication details, etc.). Further, some indication has also been given throughout when a designer's work is signed with signature or monogram. After the producer's name and the print number or range, the letter 's' in parentheses indicates a signature, the letter 'm' a monogram, and neither letter indicates a print that is unsigned by the draughtsman or draughtswoman. In addition, most of the proofs have the Dalziels' signature, although some do not. The presence/absence of the Dalziel signature has not been catalogued, since it is known that all these prints are by them.
The album includes some hand-written annotation, including brief notes written at the Dalziel office, and some designers's details added more recently, e.g. by Robin de Beaumont.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1913,0415.203
