In Fairyland. Fairies with Flowers, Butterflies and Birds. c1905

by Evans, Edmund

Male and female fairies at play. Antique print.

Fairies amid nature, imaginatively drawn by Richard Doyle for Edmund Evans's colour-printed wood engravings illustrating William Allingham's In Fairyland. Pictures from the Elf World.

Gifted with inate humour, from an early age Richard Doyle (1824-1883), drew juvenalia (children's subjects). He always loved drawing fairies. The most gifted of a family of artists 'Dickie Doyle' illustrated his first book, Home for the Holidays when he was 12. From 1840 he collaborated with prolific humorous illustrator John Leech (1817-1864), and became most proficient in wood engraving after lessons from Punch illustrator, Joseph Swain (1820-1909). 

Working in London from around 1860, Edmund Evans (1826-1905) was one of the finest colour-printers, highly regarded as an illustrator of children's toy books, picture books and book covers. His particular skill was in the mixing of colours for the print impressions, rather than just printing successive layers of individual colour.

The page size is 275 x  380mm (10 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches). For size comparison of small images, the left-hand vertical image measures 195 x 120cm (7 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches)