An English edition of Michelet's The Bird, illustrated by Giacomelli (Nelson), was issued this year, and the highly wrought naturalistic details of the engravings became extremely popular. Its 'pretty' finish, and tame, colourless effect influenced no little work of the period, and, coupled with the clichés of Gustave Doré engravings, so lavishly reprinted here about this date, did much to promote a style of wood-engraving which found its highest expression in the pages of American magazines years afterwards, and its lowest in the 'decorated' poems of cheap 'snippet' weeklies, which to-day are yet imitated unconsciously by those who work in wash for half-tone processes.
The next important volume of the year, after Millais' Parables, judged by our standard, is unquestionably Dalziels' edition of The Arabian Nights (Ward, Lock, and Tyler)—'illustrated by A. Boyd Houghton,' one feels tempted to add to the title. But although the book is often referred to as the work of one artist, as a matter of fact it is the work of many. Houghton does not even contribute the largest number; his eighty-seven designs are beaten by T. Dalziel's eighty-nine. Nor is he the greatest draughtsman therein, for there are two by Millais. Still, notwithstanding these, and eight by John Tenniel, ten by G. J. Pinwell, one by T. Morten, two by J. D. Watson, and six by E. Dalziel, it is for Houghton's sake that the book has suddenly assumed importance, even in the eyes of those who do not search through the volumes of the sixties for forgotten masterpieces, but are content with Once a Week, the Cornhill Gallery, and Thornbury's Legendary Ballads. One thing is beyond doubt: that with the Arabian Nights and the others on this short list you have a National Gallery of the best things—not the best of all possible collections, not even an exhaustive collection of specimens of each, but a good working assortment that suffices to uphold the glory of 'the golden decade,' and can only be supplemented but not surpassed by the addition of all the others.
The book was issued in weekly numbers, as you see on opening a first edition of the volume at the risk of breaking its back. Close to the fold appears the legend, 'Printed by Dalziel Brothers, the Camden Press, N.W.,' etc. It was eventually issued in two volumes in October 1864, but dated '1865.' Mr. Laurence Housman's volume, Arthur Boyd Houghton (Kegan Paul, 1896), and his excellent article in Bibliographica, are available for those who wish for a fuller appreciation of this fine book.
A. BOYD HOUGHTON
DALZIELS' 'ARABIAN
NIGHTS,' p. 149
NOUREDDIN ALI ON
HIS JOURNEY
By the side of the books already mentioned the rest seem almost commonplace, but another edition of The Pilgrim's Progress, with one hundred illustrations by T. Dalziel, must not be overlooked. These show that one of the famous engravers was also an artist of no mean importance, and explain much of the fine taste that distinguished the publications of the firm with which he was associated. Elsewhere the many original designs by other members of the firm go to prove this up to the hilt.
It is curious to find 1864 the date of the 'new' illustrated edition of The Ingoldsby Legends (Bentley).[6] Those familiar with contemporary volumes would have hazarded a time ten to fifteen years earlier, had the matter been open to doubt. It is profusely illustrated by Leech, Tenniel, and Cruikshank, but in no way a typical book of the sixties. English Sacred Poetry of the Olden Time (Religious Tract Society, 1864) was issued this year. It contains F. Walker's Portrait of a Minister (p. 184); The Abbey Walk (p. 6), and Sir Walter Raleigh (p. 60), by G. Du Maurier; ten drawings by J. W. North, three by C. Green, three by J. D. Watson, and many by Tenniel, Percival Skelton, and others, all engraved by Whymper; Our Life illustrated by Pen and Pencil (Religious Tract Society, undated), is a similar book with designs by J. D. Watson, Pinwell, C. H. Selous, Du Maurier, Barnes, J. W. North. Aytoun's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers is another book of 1863 that is noticeable for its illustrations, from designs by [Sir] Noel Paton. Robinson Crusoe, with one hundred designs by J. D. Watson (Routledge); Wordsworth's Poetry for the Young, illustrated by J. Pettie and J. M'Whirter (Strahan, 1863); C. H. Bennett's London People, and the same artist's Mr. Wind and Madam Rain (Sampson Low); Hymns in Prose by Mrs. Barbauld, illustrated by Barnes, Whymper, etc.; Dr. Cumming's Life and Lessons of our Lord, with pictures by C. Green, P. Skelton, A. Hunt, and others; yet another Pilgrim's Progress, this time with illustrations by H. C. Selous and P. Priolo (Cassell), and another Robinson Crusoe, illustrated by G. H. Thomas (Cassell); The Family Fairy Tales, illustrated 'by a young lady of eighteen,' signed M. E. E., the first published works of M. Ellen Edwards, who soon became—and deservedly—one of the most popular illustrators of the day; Homes without Hands, by J. G. Wood, with animal drawings by F. W. Keyl; Hacco the Dwarf, with illustrations, interesting, because they are (I believe) the earliest published work by G. J. Pinwell; and Golden Light (Routledge), with eighty drawings by A. W. Bayes, are some of the rest of the books of this year that must be dismissed with a bare record of their titles.
The Lake Country, with illustrations drawn and engraved by W. J. Linton (Smith and Elder, 1864), is of technical rather than general interest. Champions of the 'white line' will find practical evidence of its masterly use in the engravings. The Victorian History of England (Routledge, 1864) has at least one drawing by A. B. Houghton, but, so far as a rapid turn over of its pages revealed, only one—the frontispiece. The Golden Harp (Routledge) appears to be a re-issue of blocks by J. D. Watson used elsewhere. What Men have said about Women (Routledge) is illustrated by the same artist, who is responsible—indirectly, one hopes—for coloured designs to Melbourne House, issued about this time. The Months illustrated with Pen and Pencil (Religious Tract Society, undated) contains sixty engravings by Butterworth and Heath, after J. Gilbert, Robert Barnes, J. W. North, and others; uniform in style with English Sacred Poetry, it does not reach the same level of excellence. A book, Words for the Wise (Nelson), illustrated by W. Small, I have failed to see; a critic calls attention to it as 'the work of a promising young artist hitherto unknown to us.' Pictures of English Life, with sixteen engravings by J. D. Cooper, after drawings by R. Barnes (Sampson Low), contains blocks of a size unusual in books. The superb drawings by Charles Keene to Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures (Bradbury and Evans) enrich this prolific period with more masterpieces.