Vignette Title for "The King's Quair"

In a roundel at the center of this print, the winged figure of Love sits in a rose garden, holding a cross bow and an arrow tagged "For Lady Jane." This is a working proof for the etched title page of "Illustrations to The King's Quair of King James I of Scotland: Painted on the Staircase of Penkill Castle, Ayrshire, by William Bell Scott, 1865 to 1868; Etched by Him 1885." Privately issued in Edinburgh, the latter also includes, when complete, an essay, list of contents and five etchings based on murals that Scott made to adorn the home of Alice Boyd. She had been his student in Newcastle and the two subsequently formed a bond that lasted until the artist's death. Their love was accepted by Scott's wife and all three spent summers at Penkill, visited by Pre-Raphaelite friends such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The allegorical verse that inspired Scott was attributed to James I of Scotland and said to have been written at Windsor Castle, near the end of James's long detainment in England between 1406-24 (his father Robert III died shortly after his arrival and the young king remained long uncrowned). During this period, James received a courtly education, fought for Henry V in France and fell in love with Joan (not Jane) Beaufort, daughter of the 1st Earl of Somerset. Married in February 1424, the couple left for Scotland in April, to reign as king and queen.