The inscription on the verso is trial lettering for Prométhée. Moore must have picked up this Sketchbook some time in the late 1940s when he was considering illustrating André Gide's translation of Goethe's Prometheus. Lettering similar to that on the verso was used for the jacket of Promethee (see CGM 19);  the book's illustrations were all based on drawings dated between 1948 and 1950.