- Museum number
- 1992,0406.206.h
- Description
-
Good Words for1868. Edited by Norman Macleod, D. D. And illustrated by G. J. Pinwell,, A. B. Houghton, W. Small, F. A. Fraser, J. Wolf, J. B. Zwecker, J. Leighton, and others. London: Strahan and Co., Magazine Publishers, 56, Ludgate Hill, 1868. London: Virtue and Co, printers, City Road. 774p. 124 separate plates and illustrations set into text. [This may mean that electrotypes were used to reproduce original wood engravings.] Additional artists in the “List of Illustrations” are: T. Graham, S. L. Fildes, Henry Alford, J. Bonomi, Fras. Walker, F. Shield, E. Buckman, J. G. Thomson, M. E. Haweis, W. P. Burton, W. Simpson, B. Riviere, H. Paterson, J. Mahoney, J. Burrell Smith, T. Barnard, J. Lawson. Many of the engravings are signed “Dalziel”. The illustration facing page 6 is after Pinwell, captioned “Guild Court”, signed with his monogram, bottom right, and also signed “Dalziel”, bottom left, accompanying the story of the same title by George Macdonald. The illustration facing page 537 is after Fildes, signed bottom left and “Swain” bottom right, captioned: “In the choir”, accompanying the poem of the same name by Isabella Fyvie [i.e. Isabella Fyvie Mayo, 1843-1914]. Robin de Beaumont’s notes regarding this copy are on the front endpaper verso.
Binding: Sewn on three sawn-in cords. Yellow endpapers and pastedowns. Binder’s ticket on upper pastedown: “/ Bound by/ Virtue & Co./ City Road/ London./” Purple wave vertical-grain cloth. The same design is blocked on both covers. A single fillet blocked in blind on the borders forms a “rule frame”. On the corners and the sides, patterns of stems, leaves and flower buds are blocked in blind. On the centre of the upper cover, the title: “/ Good/ Words/ 1868/”, are blocked in gold, in “floral” letters. The same lettering is blocked on the centre of the lower cover, in blind. The spine is blocked in gold and in blind. A single fillet is blocked in blind on the perimeter. From the head downwards, the decoration is: stylised plant decoration, blocked in blind; the words: “Good/ Words/ Edited By/ Norman Macleod D. D./” are blocked in gold. On the lower half of the spine, a diamond is formed by two fillets, blocked in gold; the diamond is surrounded by stylised plant decoration, blocked in blind; within the diamond, amidst plant decoration, the words: “/ With/ Illustrations//” are blocked in gold. The year: “/1868/” is blocked in gold at the tail.
- Production date
- 1868
- Dimensions
-
Height: 246 millimetres
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Thickness: 50 millimetres
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Width: 180 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- From Gleeson White
In 1868 Pinwell and Houghton between them are responsible for quite half the separate plates, and Small contributes no less than thirty-four which illustrate delight-hilly The Woman's Kingdom, a novel by the author of John Halifax, together with a large number of vignetted initials, a feature not before introduced into this magazine. Without forgetting the many admirable examples of Mr. Small's power to sustain the interest of the reader throughout a whole set of illustrations to a work of fiction, one doubts if he has ever surpassed the excellence of these. The little sketches of figures and landscapes in the initials show that he did not consider it beneath his dignity to study the text thoroughly, so as to interpret it with dramatic insight. Your modern chic draughtsman, who reads hastily the few lines underscored in blue pencil by his editor, must laugh at the pains taken by the older men. Indeed, a very up-to-date illustrator will not merely refuse to carry out the author's idea, but prefer his own conception of the character, and say so. That neither course in itself produces great work may be granted, but one cannot avoid the conclusion that if it be best to illustrate a novel (which is by no means certain) that artist is most worthy of praise who does his utmost to present the characters invented by the author. True, that character¬-drawing with pen and pencil is out of date,—subtle emotion has taken its place,—it is not easy to make a picture of a person smiling outwardly, but inwardly convulsed with con¬flicting desires; the smile you may get, but the conflicting desires are hard to work in at the same time. Appreciation of Mr. Small's design need not imply censure of the work of others; but, all the same, the cheap half-tone from a wash¬-drawing, in the current sixpenny magazine, looks a very feeble thing after an hour devoted to the illustrations to Guy Waterman’s Mlaze, The Woman's Kingdom, Griffith Gaunt, and the rest of the serials he illustrated. In this volume two others, The Harvest Home (p. 489) and A Love Letter (p. 618), are also from the same facile hand.
The first of the Boyd Houghtons is a striking design to Tennyson’s poem of The Victim (p. 18); neither picture nor poem shows its author at his best. Others signed A. B. H. are: The Church in the Cevennes (pp. 56, 57), Discipleship (p.112), The Pope and the Cardinals (p. 305), The Gold Bridge (p.321), The Two Coats (p. 432), How it all happened (seven illustrations), Dance my Children (p. 568), a typical example of the peculiar mannerism of its author, and a Russian Farm¬yard (p. 760); also a number of small designs to Russian Fables, some of which were illustrated also by Zwecker. G. J. Pinwell illustrates Notes on the Fire (pp. 47, 49), Much work for Little Pay (p. 89), A Paris Pawn-shop (p. 233), Mrs. Dubosq's Daughter (four pictures), Una and the Lion (p. 361), Lovely, yet unloved (pp. 376, 377), Hop Gathering (p. 424), The Quakers in Norway (p. 504). S. L. Fildes has The Captain's Story, a good study of fire-light reflected on three seated figures. Other numbers worth noting are an excellent example of J. Mahoney, Yesterday and To-day (p. 672), Briton Riviere's At the Window (p. 630), R. Buckman's The White Umbrella (p. 473), and seven by Francis Walker to Hero Harold, and one each to Glenalla (p. 384), The Bracelet (p. 753), and Thieves' Quarter (p. 553).
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: The woman's kingdom; a love story.
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Associated Title: At the window.
- Acquisition date
- 1992
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1992,0406.206.h
