ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationships between words, image and presentation in the illustrated book and analyses the strategies used by the club to sell its work, tracing the shift in the appearance of this work from small-scale designs as part of an illustrated book to the exhibition etching. It explores the shift between the private and the public methods of selection, possession and display of etchings generated by the beginnings of the transition from book to frame, and its effect on both the aesthetic appearance of the etching and its status as an art work. The Queen's personal experience of etching not only heightened her interest in the medium but also enabled her to cast a discerning eye over the etching club publications. R. Redgrave's etching demonstrates how far Victorian concern about inns as a focus for rural unrest could be neutralized by enveloping them in a nostalgia for simple country life and values as exemplified by Goldsmith's text.
