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Above: Two of the framed pages in the Cassell edition that demonstrate the book's use of the tropical and weapon motifs, page 32 and page 203 (1863-4). [Click on images to enlarge them.]

The Significance of the Borders in the 1863-64 Edition

Alfred Delamotte's Primer of Illumination (1860) in particular and the Arts and Crafts Movement more generally seem to have influenced Cassell's decision in 1863 to provide elaborate borders for both the text and images of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Although applying the term to the borders of the Cassell edition may be technically anachronistic as T. J. Cobden-Sanderson​ did not make it current until he employed it in a speech before a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society​ in 1887, the principles and style of the movement had been developing in Great Britain for the past three decades through the work of architect​ Augustus Pugin, art historian​ ​ John Ruskin, and designer​ ​ William Morris.

However, the Delamotte text fails to offer such borders, focussing instead upon the visual richness of abstract illumination. In contrast, the 1863-4 Cassell's volume with large print and a lavish narrative-pictorial program featuring many full-page composite wood-block engravings, although lacking colour, uses the elaboration in the borders to comment obliquely upon the subject-matter of the illustrations themselves. The usual motifs in the 1863-64 volume include tropical leaves and flowers, vines, seaweed, seashells, and fruit — all characterizing the tropical island on which Crusoe spends twenty-eight years. Even the pages of text are bordered, some using motifs such as palm trees, vines, and parrots, others incorporating weapons, both primitive (to suggest the cannibals who are a constant menace in the second half of Part One) and modern, to suggest the technology at Crusoe's disposal. Sometimes the motif in the illustration is highly germane to the subject-matter of the main illustration; for example, in Crusoe in his Bower (Chapter VII, "Agricultural Experience"), the border reminds readers that Crusoe has cultivated wild grapes, which he transforms into raisins. In the borders of The Mutineers for Chapter XVII, "The Visit of the Mutineers," the elaboration contributes to the reader's sense of suspense in that it contains weapons and of weapons and contrasting flags. The binary opposites of a British naval ensign (upper left, a metonymy for the ship's legally empowered officers) and the skull-and-cross-bones pirate flag (upper right) reinforce the reader's impression that both sides are about to engage in combat with weapons ranging from swords, cutlasses, and axes (left border) to a variety of firearms (right border). Here, then, the motifs actually contribute to the story's suspense. The most common motif next to tropical vegetation is rope-work, which accompanies most of the illustrations that deal with nautical themes. The designer responsible in all likelihood for the embossed and gilt-stamped cover as well as for the borders was probably Thomas Macquoid.

In some borders, such as Crusoe sowing Corn, the frame provides the kind of visual comment that George Cruikshank and Hablot Knight Browne made through details in their engravings — a notable example being Phiz's embedded image of Mary Magdalene in Martha in the December 1849 instalment of David Copperfield. In the Macquoid image of Crusoe as the sower, the designer employs the motif in the border to foreshadow the success of his agricultural endeavours, and to anticipate his Christian mission to the island in Part Two. Thus, although in the accompanying text Crusoe seems uncertain as to the outcome of his sowing, the ornate border of mature barely implies that his endeavours will bear fruit. On the other hand, the fecundity implied by the full heads of barely in the corners of the frame in Crusoe at Dinner is ironic, for success in construction and architecture does not bring with it peace of mind for the lonely, aging castaway. The meaning of the border motifs, however, is not always as immediately apparent as the anchors in the corners of Crusoe sails of out his Creek, in which Crusoe undertakes the circumnavigation of the island. In Crusoe rescues the Spaniard, for instance, Pasquier leaves to the reader's conjecture the meaning of the thorns in the corners of the frame. Perhaps the illustrator intends them to represent the more unsavoury side of this island paradise.

What is surprising is that Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, having utilised these beautiful borders so extensively in the 1863-4 edition, would abandon them entirely in the 1891 edition. The Paget-illustrated, glossy-paged edition utilizes vignettes extensively, and contains only thirteen full-page lithographs that are framed in mere lines. The remaining 107 vignettes, dropped into the text, have no borders at all. Since the medium of the lithograph produces subtle variations in tone but cannot translate the sharp lines of a pen-and-ink drawing, such borders would not have been at all effective if Cassell had decided to maintain them in the 1891 edition.

The Illustrations by Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, & Thomas

Illustrators and engravers discussed elsewhere on the Victorian Web:

Related materials:

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.


Last modified 23 March 2018