Daddy Darwin's Dovecot

Randolph Caldecott (1846 – 86) was an illustrator and artist best known for his children’s picture books. Daddy Darwin’s Dovecot, written by Juliana Horatia Ewing and illustrated by Caldecott was published in 1884 by The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It was one of three books from the collaboration of Ewing and Caldecott, all moral stories about the importance of character. By 1884, Caldecott was well established as an illustrator, with a talent for using line and white space rather than relying excessively on shade and tone. He had also been working with wood engraver and print maker Edmund Evans for 6 years. Whilst the proof prints (E.219 to 224a-1899) were wood engravings, the prints for the final book were created from the newer, and cheaper, ‘process’ printing method. Caldecott felt this was unsuitable for his drawings (D.942 to 945-1886) and was unhappy with the result but vowed to learn how to make better drawings for ‘process’ printing.