Ten loose uncoloured india-paper proofs of the steel engravings of illustrations (from designs by the Marchioness of Waterford) accompanying the poem 'The Babes in the Wood', published in London by Joseph Cundall.

Author: 
[Joseph Cundall (1818-1895) of 12 Old Bond Street, London publisher and photographer; Louisa Anne Beresford [née Stuart], Marchioness of Waterford (1818-1891), watercolour painter and philanthropist]
Publication details: 
London: Joseph Cundall, Mdcccxlix. [1849.]
£320.00
SKU: 13387

Each proof is on 29 x 23 cm paper, and each is laid down on a piece of 38 x 31.5 cm card. In good condition, on lightly-aged and spotted paper, with wear and bumping to mount. The first engraving The Spectator for 23 December 1848 carried an advertisement by Cundall for 'ILLUSTRATED WORKS BY LADY AMATEURS', at the head of which was 'THE BABES IN THE WOOD. Illustrated with Ten Original Designs, Etched on Steel. | Colombier 8vo. price 1l. 1s.; or Coloured after the Drawings, 2l. 2s. | "Throughout this charming work there is the highest feeling of art." - Spectator.' (The Oxford DNB, in its entry on the Marchioness, quotes from the same review: 'As early as 1848, when The Babes in the Wood was published with ten designs by the artist, The Spectator commented that ‘The children are noble as well as beautiful specimens of budding humanity: they belong to the same large mould with the children of Raphael’ (18 Nov 1848, 1119).') A few days later, on 1 January 1849, the work was warmly praised in a review in the Art-Journal (p.35), and this was typical of the response to the work.