Design – Woodpeckings

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Dalziel after Arthur Boyd Houghton, ‘The duchess was convulsed with laughter at Sancho’s remonstrances and rage’, illustration for Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, The Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha — 1. Domestic Interiors

Dalziel after John Tenniel, illustration for 'Looking-Glass House', in Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There — 2. Domestic Interiors

Dalziel, 'She held me before her', illustration for Ellen Wood, Anne Hereford — 3. Domestic Interiors

Dalziel, unidentified illustration of a kettle — 4. Domestic Interiors

Dalziel, unidentified commercial illustration — 5. Domestic Interiors

Dalziel, illustrations for an advertisement, for ‘Death in the Cistern, Bishop’s Patent Camden Sanitary Valve, for preventing the contamination of water by sewer gases’. — 6. Domestic Interiors

Dalziel after John Tenniel, illustration for 'Wool and Water', in Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There — 7. Toys: Design & Commerce

Dalziel after Arthur Hughes, illustration for George Macdonald, At the Back of the North Wind — 8. Toys: Design & Commerce

Dalziel after Marcus Stone, ‘Miss Wren fixes her idea’, illustration for Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend — 9. Toys: Design & Commerce

Dalziel after Arthur Boyd Houghton, frontispiece to Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend — 10. Toys: Design & Commerce

Dalziel, illustration for ‘To make dancing dolls’, in Laura Valentine (ed.), The Home Book of Pleasure and Instruction — 11. Toys: Design & Commerce

Dalziel, illustration for ‘Dolls, and how to dress them’, in Laura Valentine (ed.), The Home Book of Pleasure and Instruction — 12. Toys: Design & Commerce

Dalziel after Arthur Hughes, 'My Heart', frontispiece to The Sunday Magazine — 13. Craft & Industry

Dalziel, album page with multiple illustrations of tools for use in 'Turning' in J G Wood (ed.), The Modern Playmate: A Book of Games, Sports and Diversions for Boys of All Ages — 14. Craft & Industry

Dalziel after John Tenniel, illustration for 'The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill', in Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — 15. Architecture

Dalziel after John Taylor, illustration for trade catalogue — 16. Architecture

Dalziel, from a photograph, 'Part of first and second Storey of the Kootab-Minar', illustration for Norman Macleod, 'Days in North India' — 17. Architecture

The images in this section are fascinated with small architectural details and their potential for fantastical embellishment, particularly image 15 from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and image 16 from John Taylor’s catalogue of Cast Iron Rainwater Goods (see gallery above).

Applied arts and design rose to new prominence in Victorian Britain. One illustration after Arthur Hughes of an angel weaving (no. 13) shows some of the idealism behind this movement. In 1851, the Great Exhibition in South Kensington had brought together decorative arts objects from all over the world – from vases and metalwork, to textiles, furniture and carriages. People flocked to see it, and Dalziel engraved around 785 illustrations for the official catalogue published by The Art Journal. Following the Great Exhibition, South Kensington became the site of the Victoria and Albert Museum, with collections specifically intended to inspire designers, including those at the affiliated Schools of Art. Indeed, the 1871 census shows that in the same year Through the Looking Glass was published, Edward Dalziel’s son Gilbert was an art student in South Kensington. He would later join the firm Dalziel Brothers. The stunning wood engraving of an Indian column that is included in this section (no. 17) is the kind of image he and his fellow students might have closely examined.

Throughout the century, Dalziel engraved copious images in the field of design, from cast iron stoves for Coalbrookdale, to fashion and furniture for Liberty’s department store. This section presents some made between 1865 and 1871. The first six images focus on the domestic interior. The iconic image of Alice in an armchair is paired with another after Arthur Boyd Houghton of a woman disappearing in luxurious upholstery. An illustration for Ellen Wood’s novel Anne Hereford (no. 3) includes a fashionable Japanese-style screen, highlighting the modernity of the room. Then we have three rather different takes on domestic interiors: a design for a kettle (no. 4), a door handle (no. 5), and designs for a toilet (no. 6), advertised as ‘Death in the Cistern, Bishop’s Patent Camden Sanitary Valve, for preventing the contamination of water by sewer gases’.

Following this, images seven to twelve present an unusual view of toys, shown as objects of commerce and design, rather than sentimental play. Alice’s sheep shop (no. 7) is paired with a bleak toy shop illustration after Arthur Hughes (no. 8). The dolls look like wrapped corpses. Then there are two wood engravings illustrating the same scene from Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, one for the first edition, after Marcus Stone (no. 9), and one for a reprint, after Arthur Boyd Houghton (no. 10). These show Jenny Wren, a child forced into premature financial maturity. Instead of playing with dolls’ clothes, she creates them for money. Once again, following these illustrations we consider the design behind them; the eleventh and twelfth wood engravings offer patterns for making dolls and dolls’ clothes.

Bethan Stevens

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