Ballads Weird and Wonderful (1912)

Published in 1912 by John Lane The Bodley Head (London), Ballads Weird and Wonderful is an

extraordinarily rare title, with 500 copies only being produced.

Hill was commissioned for the work - as described by Chope in his Foreword - because he was

"an artist who is not limited to the actual things of life, whose fancy is not confined within the

limits of a green field or a marble column - who, indeed, can see visions - whose inner life is

not of our life but of a strange occult devising, is impelled irresistibly towards the supernatural".

Hill's illustrations fulfill his brief in masterful fashion and they received high praise from contemporary critics. The New York Times review, for example, included the following

comment:

... the design of Satan rushing down through the waves with the boat containing

the faithless wife, is tremendous. Satan himself has one of the most graceful and

beautiful human bodies over drawn; the rhythm of the whole is thrilling, and the

conventionalized waves are splendid. There are two pictures of the dead Christ

which are solemnly and mystically impressive; "Edward, Edward" and "Hugh of

Lincoln" are powerful and imaginative, and the arm and torso of "The Mermaid"

are rare in their suggestion of soft and perfect beauty.

To the left, we show a copy of Ballads Weird andWonderful,

as illustrated by Vernon Hill and published by John Lane London

The Bodley Head (London) in 1912.

This example retains the original decoratively

gold-stamped gold cloth cover.

On the right, we show the decorated

Title Page to Ballads Weird and Wonderful.

For connoisseurs of Hill's work, we have prepared sets of 25 Greeting Cards displaying each of his images for Ballads Weird and Wonderful and on the left, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear.

Code: VH BWW CS(25)
Price: US$125.00

Similarly, we have provided options for the purchase of reproductions of these

wonderful images in a range of sizes as our Fine Art Posters.

Each of those Fine Art Posters is prepared with archival quality materials to ensure

many years of ongoing enjoyment.

Should you wish to order a Fine Art Poster or an individual Greeting Card from this

suite, or simply like to read more about any of the images in this superb set and the

ballads that served as the inspiration for Vernon Hill, please follow the hyperlinks

(that is, click on the illustration of interest) and you will be taken through to a page

dedicated to that illustration.

To make a purchase, simply click on the appropriate "Add to Cart" button and you

will be taken through to our Shopping Cart secured through PayPal. Multiple

purchases will be consolidated by that feature and shipping and handling costs to any

destination in the world are accommodated by our flat-rate fee of US$20 for every

US$200 worth of purchases.

Of course, should you wish to discuss some customised options, we welcome your

contact on any matter through ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com.

In the meantime, enjoy perusing these wonderful images from Vernon Hill.

An example of one of our Fine Art

Posters as presented in either a

10x18'' or 20x36'' format