Art Print
The Monitory Lizard
A poet’s papercut: the lizard walks on the verse she wrote. Elizabeth Cobbold cut some eighty valentines a year, each scissored by...
From $32.00 USD
Explore the print →Métrica
Elizabeth Cobbold — The Monitory Lizard
Elizabeth Cobbold — The Monitory Lizard
A poet's papercut. The lizard walks on her own verse.
Regular price
$39.00 USD
Regular price
Sale price
$39.00 USD
Unit price
per
Free US shipping on 2+ pieces. $8 on one.Free US shipping on two or more pieces. $8 flat on a single one.
Screen-printed and shipped from the USA. Shipping policy
Add a second — shipping’s on us.
Couldn't load pickup availability
Regular fit · Pre-shrunk · 5.3 oz cotton
30-day returns & size exchanges
Unworn, unwashed tees in original condition. You cover return shipping; for a size exchange, we cover shipping the new one. Read the policy.
A poet's papercut. The lizard walks on her own verse.
About the print
Elizabeth Cobbold, the poet of Ipswich, cut some eighty paper valentines every year — each scissored by hand from half a sheet of letter paper and inscribed with a verse of her own — for her celebrated annual Valentine's ball. Hers were cut on red paper for a lady and blue for a gentleman; this one, on red, imagines a woman's guardian: The Monitory Lizard, the lizard that warns. (A lovely double meaning: monitory and the monitor lizard both come from the Latin monere, to warn.) The verse she wrote is the very ground the creature walks on. We keep her craft and her words whole: the red shirt is her lady's valentine paper, the lizard is the cut, the verse is underfoot. One ink.
Continue reading ▾
About the artist
Elizabeth Cobbold (1767–1824) was an English poet, naturalist and celebrated hostess. Her hand-cut valentines — made by the dozens each year for her Valentine's ball in Ipswich — survive as some of the finest amateur papercutting of the Regency era.
The New York Public Library, Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle · ca. 1823 · Public domain (NYPL)
Care — Machine wash cold, inside out. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the print.
Materials & Fit
PrintScreen-printed
Fabric100% combed cotton
Weight5.3 oz / 180 gsm · midweight
FitRegular fit, pre-shrunk
ConstructionSide-seamed · shoulder-to-shoulder tape · double-needle hems
BlankAS Colour Staple 5001
Made byReal Thread, USA
ShippingFree in the US on 2+ pieces · $8 flat on one
View size guide →
Vegancertified
UPF 50+sun protection
From our printer in Orlando
Real ink.
One screen at a time.
Our tees are screen-printed by Real Thread. Watch Isolde take shape on the press, from the first line to the red field.
Isolde on press · 12 seconds · Filmed at Real Thread
Paper into image
Illustration, silhouette and the expressive power of a line.
$39.00Choose your size