Buy from Us with a Golden Curl (frontispiece to "Goblin Market and other Poems" by Christina Rossetti)

Buy from Us with a Golden Curl (frontispiece to "Goblin Market and other Poems" by Christina Rossetti)

Christina Rossetti's book of verse, "Goblin Market", alludes to various interpretations of culture that was immensely popular in the Victorian area; consumerism and female sexuality. The text revolves around two sisters encompassed by the temptation of goblins and disgusting animalistic creatures, craving for buyers to taste their fruits. This is one of the most popular depictions for Christina Rossetti's, "Goblin Market", this is a wood engraving copied in print. In the illustration, Laura is cutting a lock of her hair to feed into the temptation of tasting the tropical fruits. During the Victorian age, hair was essential to the identity of women, however in M.R. James "The Diary of Mr.Poynter", Mr. Poynter's glorious hair was plucked and haunted him into the grave, proving to be just as important. In both stories, hair is the consequential cost, leading to a detrimental event of either a haunting or deathly sickness, both involving the afterlife. Both stories factor hair as an essential aspect of life or death, Mr. Poytner essentializes the importance of his hair by reproducing a humanlike body, covered in hair after his death. While goblins believed Laura's golden locks were the equivalent as the pay of gold. Unfortunately, both antagonists remove their hair in some way or form for a great exchange of death (in the long run).

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (British, London 1828-1882 Birchington-on-Sea)

Engraver: Charles Faulkner (British, active 1862)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection."

Morris

Marshall

Faulkner and Co.

1862

Goblin Market (poem)

Wood Engraving

Print.

Accession Number: 37.58.1