Tailpiece to The Rape of the Lock (1714)
The printer's ornament you have just looked at is the tailpiece to the 3rd edition (1714) of Alexander Pope's famous mock-heroic poem, The Rape of the Lock.
This engraved tailpiece, the six full-page illustrations, and other ornaments were designed by Louis Du Guernier and engraved by Claude Du Bosc. They are copper-plate, line engravings. Pope's witty, delicate, and urbane poem has inspired many subsequent artists--William Hamilton, Henry Fuseli, C.R. Leslie, George Kirby, and Aubrey Beardsley, among others--to create illustrations for it.
Definition of "Tailpiece" from the American Heritage Dictionary:
tail·piece
(t³l"p¶s") n. 1. A piece forming an end; an appendage. 2. Printing. An engraving or a design placed as an ornament at the end of a chapter or at the bottom of a page. 3. Architecture. A beam tailed into a wall. Also called tail beam. 4. Music. A triangular piece of ebony to which the lower ends of the strings of a violin or cello are attached.What many students (and my children) first thought this image was:
a chastity belt!