This progress proof, for ‘King Arthur in the Vale of Avalon’ is the first in a series. It enshrines some of Rossetti’s detailed annotations, which he wrote in order to guide the wood engravers (the Dalziels). 135 x 80 mm. His focus is on small improvements to the heads, although he passes without comment on a number of other changes. This is of course only a segment of the illustration; the other half would have been engraved and printed separately. Such division of labour was the usual practice, with the blocks being bolted together to create the complete impression. The illustration was published as the second design for Tennyson’s Poems (London: Moxon, 1857), 113.
Scanned image by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. Reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons. Caption,text and formatting by Simon Cooke. You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you acknowledge the Fitzwilliam Museum as the source of the image. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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Created 7 August 2025