This image is taken from an illustrated music book featuring decorative colour illustrations by the artist Walter Crane (1845-1915).

Walter Crane was one of the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, along with other major designers including the likes of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. The Arts and Crafts movement aimed to recapture the spirit and quality of traditional craftsmanship in response to what many saw as the soulless mass-production of the factories of the Industrial Revolution.

Crane became especially renowned as a children’s book illustrator and was interested in the design of the book as a whole, concerning himself as much with borders and typography as with the illustrations themselves.

The Pan Pipes book from which this image is taken features musical scores for a variety of traditional songs, accompanied by Crane’s bold and elaborate border panels featuring images of lovers, beautiful maidens, gallant soldiers and the like.