HMF 78(48)-78(55) were drawn as possible covers for the 25th anniversary number of Encounter, a literary periodical founded in London in 1953 by Stephen Spender and Irving Kristol. Moore had first met Spender in 1934 when he sketched the poet, see HMF 1069-1072, and Spender gave the address at Moore's memorial service in Westminster Abbey, November 1986. See also HMF 3025a. There is a fragment of lithographic proof on the verso.