Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/484

 childless. The eighth son of Alexander Dalziel, Davison Octavian, born at Newcastle on 30 Oct. 1825, devoted himself to commerce.

A daughter, Margaret Jane Dalziel (born at Wooler on 3 Nov. 1819, died unmarried on 12 July 1894), was a skilful wood-engraver and aided her brothers from 1851 onwards. George Dalziel came from Newcastle to London early in 1835 as pupil to the wood-engraver Charles Gray, with whom he remained four years. He then set up independently, but was soon joined by his brother Edward [q. v. Suppl. II], who entered into partnership with him as joint founder of 'The Brothers Dalziel.' John joined the firm in 1852 and Thomas [q. v. Suppl. II] in 1860. The work of the firm was done from 1857 onwards at 53 (afterwards 110) High Street, Camden Town, where John Dalziel lived, while his brothers resided at various addresses in Camden Town, Primrose Hill, and Hampstead. In their memoirs George and Edward Dalziel give 1840 as the opening date of their combined career. Some of their early wood-engravings are signed with their respective initials, but they soon adopted the common signature, 'Dalziel sc.,' and their individual work was thenceforth merged in the joint production of the firm. George Dalziel produced few original designs. Between 1840 and 1850 the brothers worked much in association with Ebenezer Landells [q. v.], through whose introduction they obtained the engraving of blocks for the early numbers of 'Punch' and the 'Illustrated London News.' Their Tyneside connection brought them into relations with Bewick's pupil, William Harvey [q. v.], many of whose drawings they engraved from 1839 to 1866. Harvey introduced them to the publisher Charles Knight, for whose Shakespeare and 'The Land we live in ' (1854-6) they engraved many blocks. They were also employed by T. Cadell of Edinburgh for the Abbotsford edition of the 'Waverley Novels.' About 1850 they entered into business relations with George Routledge, which continued for forty years ; they were on similar friendly terms with the firm of Frederick Warne & Co., till 1865 partners of Routledge. Though the brothers Dalziel worked for many other publishers, including Cundall, Chapman & Hall, Longmans, Macmillan, Smith & Elder, Strahan, and Ward & Lock, it was mainly through Routledge and Warne that they were enabled to begin the issue of the long series of illustrated books by which their name became famous in a generation which had grown tired of steel engravings. For these 'fine art' books, often issued in the name of other firms, the Dalziels made all arrangements and undertook the financial risk, commissioning artists on their own responsibility to design the woodcuts, contributing part of the designs themselves, and engraving the blocks by their own hands or those of pupils.

Much of their early work was done after artists whose popularity was already established, such as George Cruikshank, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Kenny Meadows, F. R. Pickersgill, and Sir John Gilbert. Their connection with the pre-Raphaelites began in 1855, when Millais was advised by Doyle to employ the Dalziels to cut one of the blocks which he was then preparing for Moxon's edition of Tennyson's poems (1857). Their first engravings after Millais, Rossetti, and Arthur Hughes were made for William Allingham's 'The Music Master and Day and Night Songs' (1855). Most of the illustrations of Rossetti and Holman Hunt passed through their hands, while Ford Madox Brown and Burne-Jones were contributors to their 'Bible Gallery.' They engraved a large proportion of Millais's black-and-white work, the most famous set of illustrations from his pen being the 'Parables of Our Lord,' commissioned in 1857 and completed in 1864. Other illustrators who owed much to the zeal and enterprise of the firm were Birket Foster, George du Maurier, Sir John Tenniel, and Harrison Weir. They cut the illustrations to the nursery classics, Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense' (1862) and Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' (1866) and 'Through the Looking-glass' (1872).

On the foundation of the 'Corn hill Magazine' in 1859 they were entrusted with the engraving of all the illustrations, and in 1862 they undertook, at the request of Alexander Strahan, the engraving and entire control of the illustrations to 'Good Words.' Such a commission gave them ample opportunities of enlisting new forces, and they deserve especial credit for discovering original talent for illustration in :he cases of Frederick Walker, George John Pinwell, Arthur Boyd Houghton, Matthew James Lawless, John Dawson Watson, Frederick Barnard, and Mr. John W. North, A.R.A. The merit of English illustration during 1855-70 is due in no small measure to the co-operation of this distinguished band of draughtsmen on wood, and others, with such conscientious and artistic inter-