Menu Close

PAG2-crane-ship-jpg

This halftone engraving reproduces one of Walter Crane’s illustrations for his nursery rhyme book, The Fairy Ship (1873), produced in Routledge’s Toy Books series. It portrays a group of mice-sailors raising the sail of their ship. The centre of the image is the mast with a mouse acting as lookout in the crow’s nest. His back is to the viewer and he looks through a telescope pointed toward the upper left of the image. He wears a brimmed hat and dark coat. On either side of this post, on the spar, are a group of mice working to attach the sail. The are all wearing berets, stripped shirts, and dark pants. Three mice sit on the left side of the spar and, on the other side of the mast, five sit on the right. Beneath the spar, a mouse ascends the Jacob’s ladder on either side of the mast. Behind all the mice, the white sail billows out toward the upper right corner. At the top of the mast, an elaborate flag decorated with mice waves in the wind. Two seagulls fly to the right of the sail. Beyond the sail and seagulls, the ocean rolls with white foaming waves. In the upper right corner, above the horizon line, the following portion of the nursery rhymeis hand-lettered on the sky: “The sails they were of satin, / The mast it was of gold.”