Introduction
DGR designed the cover of Christina Rossetti's famous book of poems, for which he also
made a pair of illustrations—a title page and a
frontispiece. These illustrations appeared in the book in the
engravings executed by W. J. Linton
and C. J. Faulkner, respectively.
For the binding he chose a dark blue cloth
cover decorated with a series of interweaving gold-stamped lines with six sets of
small gold circles stamped at the intersections of
the lines. (A known variant is bound in a smooth red cloth.) The endpapers are a
dull mulberry color, like those of
<hi rend="i">The
Early Italian Poets</hi>
, whose
cover design set the model for this one (the lettering
and spine decorations are the same on both books, and DGR has varied only slightly the
design of intersecting lines). In his essay on DGR's book bindings Grieve
observes that the coarse threading of the cloth covers
“was perhaps inspired by the texture of the covers
of Japanese books of prints” (Grieve 79).
The binding design for the second (1865) edition was changed
slightly from the original. In both states the
front cover design is stamped blind on the back.
Bibliographic
Fredeman,
“‘Woodman, Spare that Block’”
(1996),
7-41.
Grieve,
“Applied Art 2”
(1973),
79-83.
Marillier,
<hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi>
, 118.
<hi rend="i">DGR: Painter and Poet</hi>
[Royal Academy 1973]
57 (number 226).