Among the many favors the Queen has at various times graciously conferred on the is that of permitting access, for the purpose of engraving, to some of the beautiful works of Art comprising her private collection, who, even long before she ascended the throne so preeminently adorned by her, was known to have manifested more than ordinary taste and judgment in all matters associated with the Fine Arts. And even amid the cares of state and the infinite variety of demands made upon the time and attention of the Royal Lady, the Queen has maintained her interest in the works of the artist of every kind and degree. Skilful herself in the use of the pencil and the etching-needle, she has often found, especially in years now long past, relaxation and amusement in their employment, cultivating her own aesthetic tastes by practice, and thereby helping to form in the minds of her youthful family a love, as well as a knowledge, of what must be always considered one of the great enjoyments of life, however exalted the possessor’s station: an enjoyment that must be the greater in proportion to the means and the ability one may have to indulge in it.

      The drawing by Sir Edwin Landseer which is here copied by permission of the Queen Victoria is a highly-finished work in colored chalk: finished, that is, so far as the face are concerned; the hair and the dresses are touched in with great boldness and in a most effective manner.  Who the bonnie “lad and lassie” may be - they are doubtless brother and sister - we know not, nor is it of any importance to the world at large.  The original bears the artist’s monogram and the date of the drawing - the same year in which he painted several Scotch pictures, ‘The Monarch of the Glen,’ ‘Highland Lassie crossing the Stream.’  Among the works belonging to the year 1851 which were in the Landseer exhibition of 1874 were portraits, also in crayons, of two Highland gillies, favorite attendants, we believe, on the Prince Consort in his deer-stalking expeditions: these portraits are also in the Queen’s collection. It is quite possible that Sir Edwin Landseer met with this “Lad and Lassie’ among the children of the royal tenants of Balmoral, and so came to make this drawing of them, with which the Queen was so much interested as to add it to her collection.

This item is a steel engraving by Sir Edwin Landseer called “LAD AND LASSIE”.  It was engraved by F. Holl and published in 1877.  The engraving is in very good condition.  The engraving measures 9 7/8” x 6 7/8”, and is matted to 11” x 14” for easy framing.