David Jones, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – 1981 copper engraving

David Jones The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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An original 1981 engraving print – David Jones, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

This fine copper engraving is printed from the original set of engravings that the artist and poet David Jones (1895–1974) produced for ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, originally published by Douglas Cleverdon in 1929.

Printed with a blue/green plate tone on laid paper, it appears to be a preparatory proof for ‘The Engravings of David Jones - A Survey’, a Clover Hill Edition published by Douglas Cleverdon in 1981. Possibly printed from the original plate by Bernard Cook, Stoke Newington.

David Jones considered The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to be ‘one of the great achievements of English poetry, and not only great but unique’. In 1929 Jones made ten copper engravings for a limited edition of Coleridge’s poem, which was immediately acclaimed as the best illustrated version of the poem and ‘among the most perfect partnerships between author and illustrator in modern times’.

David Jones (1895–1974)

David Jones (1895–1974) was a British painter, engraver, and modernist poet known for combining visual art with literary and historical themes. He was born in Brockley, London, to a Welsh father and an English mother, a background that deeply influenced his lifelong interest in British and Celtic identity. Jones studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts before serving as a private in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the First World War. His wartime experiences had a profound impact on his work and later inspired his most famous literary piece, In Parenthesis (1937), a modernist epic that blends prose and poetry to depict life in the trenches.

After the war, Jones became associated with a group of artists and craftsmen linked to the Catholic Arts & Crafts movement, converting to Roman Catholicism in 1921. His visual art—particularly his engravings and watercolours—often drew on religious symbolism, mythology, and British history.

Although he was in some ways a solitary and obscure figure, David Jones is now regarded as a significant figure in both 20th-century British art and literature.