Peter Maverick, born New York City - Poems by Robert Burns, Vol. III, Title Page - 1821 - T-Shirt

This is a copperplate title page from the third volume of Robert Burns's collected poems, engraved by Peter Maverick and published in New York in 1821.

Visual Elements & Composition

The page is built around a cream field that covers most of the design, with sepia grey and charcoal engraving lines carrying the lettering and the scene. A rectangular title page frames the text: POEMS, BY, Robert Burns, Vol. III, followed by the publication details, Peter Maverick sc., NEW-YORK, Published by R.&W.A. Bartow, and 1821. Beneath the type sits an oval vignette, a small engraved landscape in which a farmer returns from the fields with a spade and a bundled load on his back, while a child runs toward him with outstretched arms beside a cottage under a cloudy sky. A woman stands in the cottage doorway, and trees fill the background.

Meaning & Symbolism

The vignette illustrates The Cotter's Saturday Night, Burns's celebrated poem of a labouring family greeting its father at the end of the week, and it stands for the domestic virtue and rural dignity that made Burns a figure of universal feeling. Burns was among the most reprinted poets of the 1820s, and American publishers issued his works to meet strong demand from readers who heard in them an expression of democratic ideals. Maverick, a prominent New York engraver, produced this page to the standards of nineteenth-century book design, and the careful lettering and tonal shading show the craft of an era when printed books were the main vehicle for a writer's reputation.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A title page is meant to be read at close range, and this design carries its text and scene at a scale that rewards a closer look. Printed across the chest of a tee, the vignette sits at the centre of the body where the eye lands first, with the title lines reading down the shirt like the top of a book. The cream ground and fine engraved lines suit a plain, unlined garment, so the page looks like the front of a volume worn into everyday life.