Decorative Initial I

George Du Maurier

Wood engraving

Designed for Thomas Hardy's The Hand of Ethelberta

The Cornhill Magazine 32 (August 1875): 233

Although the initial-letter vignette for the second instalment appears to be recalling for us those moments at the close of the first instalment when Kit was playing the piano and his sister, Faith, her harp for the impromptu ball at Wyndway House, this miniature illustration like its full-scale plate may be anticipating a moment yet to be encountered in the printed text, namely Christopher's playing his own composition for Ethelberta's lyric "When Tapers Tall" at the close of the second instalment.

Scanned image, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham