Initial-letter Vignette "I" — Lady Augusta and Count Pracontal at the Countess Balderoni's reception (Vol. XVII, page 385), vertically-mounted, 7.5 cm high by 5 cm wide, signed "MEE." in the lower-left corner of Mary Ellen Edwards' initial thumbnail vignette illustration for the April 1868 instalment of Charles Lever's The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly in the Cornhill Magazine, Chapters XL-XLIII ("'A Reception' at Rome" to "A Special Mission") in Vol. 17: pages 385 through 404 (19 pages including the unpaged illustration in instalment). The wood-engraver responsible for this illustration was Joseph Swain (1820-1909), noted for his engravings of Sir John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
This vignette opens the chapter, but focuses on Lady Augusta's subsequent conversation with the handsome but devious continental cousin by marriage:
It was the night of the Countess Balderoni's weekly reception, and the servants had just lighted up the handsome suite of rooms and disposed the furniture in fitting order, when the Countess and Lady Augusta Bramleigh entered to take a passing look at the apartment before the arrival of the guests. [Vol. XVII, Chapter XL, "'A Reception' at Rome," 385]
The miniature plate is useful in identifying Pracontal in the main illustration, and for underscoring his attempts to establish an intimate liaison with the vain, imperious middle-aged widow of his cousin, Colonel Bramleigh. The suave, plausible Pracontal is evidently the slender aristocrat in evening-clothes immediately to the left of Lady Augusta in 'A Reception' at Rome.
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned them and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Lever, Charles. The Bramleighs of Bishop’s Folly. The Cornhill Magazine 15 (June, 1867): pp. 640-664; 16 (July-December 1867): 1-666; 17 (January-June 1868): 70-663; 18 (July-October 1868): 1-403. Rpt. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872. Illustrated by M. E. Edwards; engraved by Joseph Swain.
Stevenson, Lionel. "Chapter XVI: Exile on the Adriatic, 1867-1872." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 277-296.
Created 7 September 2023