Approaching Astolat

the next six pictures were taken from The story of Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat. This book belongs to a series published by E. Moxon, son, and Co, London, and collecting Arthurian legends, as written by various Authors. In this particular case, the text is from Tennyson’s Elaine.
The whole series, also dubbed The Doré series of gift books, was probably intended as a semi-luxury edition, each book containing nine steel engravings from drawings by Gustave Doré, which were obviously the most alluring feature and selling point. The short description regarding the binding mentions cloth, full gilt, gilt edges, and the front cover was attractively designed.
Each book was sold for the price of twelve shillings at the time of its publication, around 1880.

Click picture to view full size. (Image source: The Internet Archive.)