"Title-page and Vignette, Vol. One" by George Cruikshank (1792-1878)

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Title-page and Vignette, Vol. One.

George Cruikshank

Etching

6 ⅞ by 4 ⅜ inches (17.5 cm by 11.3 cm)

German Popular Stories London: Chatto & Windus, 1868

Photograph and text added by Siobhan Lam, updated by Philip V. Allingham

Original scan, courtesy of the John Hay Library, Brown University; rescan from an edition in the Internet Archive (see bibliography)

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Vogler's Commentary: Scarce Illustrations Prized by Collectors

Title-page Volume I This and the title-page to the second volume (illustration 56) relate to no specific tale but establish the mood the moment of the oral tradition from which the Grimm fairy tales derive. In this instance the paterfamilias is seen reading the tales to the family in front of the fireplace. The umlaut on the "a" in "Marchen" is not found in the earliest printings of this etched title-page, thus increasing the value of these printings for collectors. Even before John Ruskin highly praised these illustrations, they had become very scarce. . . . [Vogler, No. 57, p. 138]

The vignettes on the title pages of the two volumes imply that at some level Cruikshank understood the communal and oral nature of these tales. In the first (fig. 50), which Baldwyn published, a man sitting before a huge hearth reads to a laughing audience of old and young adults. . . . . Both rooms seem ancient — the first perhaps mediaeval, the second Jacobean. Both feature blazing fires, leaded windows, and a nighttime winter atmosphere. [Robert L. Patten, p. 248]

The present volume is a faithful reprint of both series. The etchings, most carefully following the originals, are considered masterpieces of reproduction. [J.C. Hotten, Advertisment, p. iii]

Related Material

John Camden Hotten (publisher)

Illustrations from this work

Bibliography

German Popular Stories. Ed. Edgar Taylor with an Introduction by John Ruskin. London: John Camden Hotten, nd.

German Popular Stories. Ed. Edgar Taylor with an Introduction by John Ruskin and an Advertisement by J.C.H. (John Camden Hotten). London: Chatto and Windus, 1868. Internet Archive, from a copy in Duke University Libraries. Web. 4 November 2026.

Patten, Robert L. George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 1992. Volume One: 1792-1835. Figure 50, p. 249.

Taylor, Edgar (translator). German Popular Stories Translated from the Kinder Und Haus Marchen, Collected by M. M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition. Vol. One. London: Charles Baldwyn, 1823.

Vogler, Richard A. Graphic Works of George Cruikshank. New York: Dover, 1979.

Created 2 August 2007

Last updated 31 October 2026