Production Description
Document Title: Proof-sheets of the “Ballads” section of 1881, corrected by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti.
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Printer: Chiswick Press, Charles Wittingham and Co., Tooks Ct. Chancery
Lane, [E?].C.
City of publication: London
Date of publication: 1881 April - 1881 May
Edition: 1
Pagination: [iii]-xii, [3]-40, 43-48, [97]-[160], [97]-158, [159]-[160]
Collation: Signature A (iii-xii), B (3-16), C, D (33-40, 43-48), H, I, K, L,
H, I K, L
Authorization: DGR
Corrector: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: Houghton Library, Harvard University
Catalog Number: HEW 9.5.3
Physical Description
Cover: Blue folded stiff board cover
Point: 10 point, 6 point leading
Lines per Page: 24 (Sig. A); 17 (rest of the proofs)
Margin top: 2 cm.
Margin bottom: 3.8 cm.
Margin right: 2 cm.
Margin left: 2.5cm.
Dimensions of Document: 19.2 cm x 12.9 cm
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This set of mixed proofs gathers signatures that were printed at various times during April-May 1881. Printer's date stamps on certain signatures, as well as comparisons with other extant proofs, show the following dates: Sig. A, 19 May; Sig. B, 7 April; Sig. C, 22 April; Sig. D, 13 April; Sig. H, 3 May; Sig. I, 14 April; Sig. K, 31 May; Sig. L, 31 May. The second copy of Signature H is an uncorrected duplicate of the first, the second copy of Signature K is an uncorrected duplicate of the first revise (printed on 22 April), and the second copy of Signature L is an uncorrected duplicate of a revise printed on 26 April.
Printer's marks for improving the printing appear at various points. Signature I has numerous corrections by DGR and was clearly an author's proof. Signature D and the first copy of Signature H carry various marginal notes by WMR; these were proofs that DGR had sent to his brother for comment and suggestions (at pages 47, 98, 102, 107, and 111). Other authorial text corrections appear on pages 5, 10, 11, 138, and 140.
All these proofs should be compared with the elaborate sets preserved in the Delaware Art Museum library, with the proofs at Yale, and with the British Library set.