The Wood Engravers' Self-Portrait - by Bethan Stevens (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first major study of Dalziel Brothers, a Victorian image-making firm that made a phenomenal contribution to mass visual culture.

Book Synopsis

The wood engravers' self-portrait tells the story of the image-making firm Dalziel Brothers, investigating and interpreting a unique archive from the British Museum. The study takes a creative-critical approach to illustration, alongside detailed investigation of print techniques and history. Five siblings ran the wood engraving firm Dalziel Brothers: George, Edward, Margaret, John and Thomas Dalziel. Prospering through five decades of work, Dalziel became the major capitalist image makers of Victorian Britain. This book, based on AHRC-funded research, outlines the achievements of these remarkable siblings and uncovers the histories of some of the 36 unknown artisan employees that worked alongside them. Dalziel Brothers made works of global importance: illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice books, novels by Charles Dickens, and landmark Pre-Raphaelite prints, as well as other, brilliant works that are published here for the first time since their initial creation.

From the Back Cover

The wood engravers' self-portrait tells the story of Dalziel Brothers, the leading image-makers of Victorian Britain. Between 1839 and 1893, the Dalziel firm made around 54,000
illustrations, collecting these in albums that constitute a unique visual memoir. This is the first major study of the Dalziels. It combines in-depth archival research with a distinctive methodology, incorporating detailed examination of printmaking techniques, an analysis of word-image relations in illustration, and a creative-critical approach.

Dalziel's output includes engravings of global influence - such as the illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice books, novels by Charles Dickens, and landmark Pre-Raphaelite prints. The artists also made intricate and fascinating unknown works, which range from brilliant scientific illustrations, to keep-fit diagrams and Cadbury's advertisements. The wood engravers' self-portrait tells the multifarious stories of the Dalziel artists and employees, based on the author's extensive research in the Dalziel Archive, conducted in partnership with the British Museum. As well as exploring the Dalziel family and the works they made, this study addresses the challenges of uncovering and understanding creative work made by low-paid and supposedly mechanical artists (such as the precarious freelance engravers hired by Dalziel). It investigates the image firm's role in shaping aspects of Victorian culture that continue to have a strong and ambivalent legacy, from the fast and wide circulation of wood engravings, to the visualisation of gendered and imperialist texts. It contributes to current theoretical and methodological investigations of mass print culture and word-image relations.

About the Author

Bethan Stevens is a Senior Lecturer in English and Creative & Critical Writing at the University of Sussex