print;
book;
book-illustration
- Museum number
- 1992,0406.342
- Description
-
Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market and other poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1862. London: Bradbury and Evans, printers Whitefriars. vii,192p. 2 plates. With sixteen pages of publisher's titles bound at the end. The half-title page is divided into three panels by double vertical and horizontal fillets. The title is printed in the upper panel, and the imprint in the lower. Signed with the monogram: "GDR" [i.e. Dante Gabriel Rossetti] as a monogram in the left hand corner, and "WJL" [i.e. William James Linton] on the lower right hand corner. The illustration in the middle of two women reclining and embracing is captioned: “/ Golden head by golden head/”. The frontispiece plate has the caption:" / Buy from us a golden curl/ "; it is signed also with "MMF&Co" [i.e. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.] on the bottom left-hand corner and “DGR” [i.e. Dante Gabriel Rossetti] as a monogram in the bottom right hand corner. Page five of the publisher's titles list this work as: "/ With Two Illustrations from Designs by D.G. Rossetti./ Foolscap. 8vo. cloth./"Robin de Beaumont's notes regarding price and dating of this copy are written on the front endpaper verso. The bookplate of Robin de Beaumont is on the front paste down.
Binding: Brown endpapers and pastedowns. The upper pastedown has a booksellers' label embossed: "/ W.H. Smith & Son/ 186/ Strand/ London/". Blue rib vertical-grain cloth. Both covers blocked identically, in blind on the lower, and in gold on the upper. Two fillets are blocked close together, head to tail, by the spine. A third vertical fillet is blocked further away from the spine. A fourth vertical fillet is blocked in gold near the fore edge. Two fillets are blocked horizontally in gold, intersecting the vertical fillets, and continuing all the way to the fore edge. Rectangles are formed by the intersecting single fillets. Groups of three small circles are blocked in gold at four of the intersection points. Two more groups of the three circles are blocked diagonally opposite those on the corners of the square nearest the spine. The spine is blocked in gold. The fillets at the head and at the base join the horizontal fillets on the upper cover. From the head downwards, the decoration is: the words: "/Goblin/ Market/ & other/ Poems./";[rule] ; "/Christina/ Rossetti./ [rule]" are blocked in gold; three small circles in gold underneath the title.
- Production date
- 1862
- Dimensions
-
Height: 172 millimetres
-
Thickness: 20 millimetres
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Width: 115 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Christina Rossetti was very close to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which her brother (Dante Gabriel Rossetti) was a founding member. Her poems inspired many of the group's artists for they touched upon similar themes of 'devotional invocations, heartfelt romance and dramatic fantasy' and offered a 'verbal analogue for their pictorial images' (Jan Marsh, p.39). Indeed, Dante drew the frontispiece for the volume, and chose to illustrate one of Christina's most famous poem: 'Goblin market.'
This volume was published in 1862 as Christina Rossetti was volunteering to help girls considered to be sexually 'at-risk'. 'Goblin Market' was inspired by her work and tells the tale of two sisters fighting the temptation of 'fair-seeming fruits'. It symbolises the dangers of temptation that are bound to lead the young women away from the path of righteousness. The volume's popularity 'secured Rossetti's reputation as the leading female poet, in succession to Elizabeth Barrett Browning [...] It influenced Swinburne, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Emily Dickinson' (Jan Marsh, p. 41).
Bibliography:
- 'Christina Rossetti' in Jan Marsh (ed.), Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, (London, 2019), pp. 34-43.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Goblin Market and other poems.
- Acquisition date
- 1992
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1992,0406.342
