Content/DescriptionThis is the decorated copy Rossetti made of the "Introductory Sonnet" to the 1881 edition of "The House
of Life." The design was executed as a present for his mother on her eightieth birthday (27 April 1880). It is supposed to
have been copied into David Main's edition of "A Treasury of English Sonnets," which Rossetti gave to his mother as a present.
. The lost original design is known from two printed copies made from it, one of which was published as the frontispiece to
William Sharp's "Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A Record and a Study" (1882). It is possible that this is the original proof for
Sharp's frontispiece. (see: The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - http://www.iath.virginia.edu/rossetti/)