Hand-drawn nautical illustration and calligraphy.

Text is from the original Hans Christian Andersen's story and reads: Far out into the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwells the pretty little mermaid with eyes as blue as the deepest sea.