Illustrations to Shakepears “A Midsummer Nights Dream” by Elsie M Starling. Published in the early 1900′s (exact date is unkown)

Download the entire book HERE

Thomas Mackenzie was an illustrator from Bradford England working in the early part of the 20th century. His style is very reminiscent of his more famous contemporary Kay Nielsen. The images presented here are taken from his 1919 illustrations for Arthur Ransomes “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp” . As well as the fabulous colour images shown here, the book is decorated on every page with fantastic borders and other embelishments in pen and ink. It is a great shame that he never acheived greater success. He died in France in 1944.
Click the thumbnails below for full sized view. You can download a 300dpi colour scan of the entire book at the bottom of this post.

Download the entire book HERE.

These images are taken from the book Silesian Folk Tales; (The Book of Rubezahl), by James Lee & James T. Carey. Published in 1915 by the American Book Company of New York, it was illustrated by an unkown artist by the name of C.F. Arcier. It appears that this fantastic artist remained unkown as I have been unable to find out any information about them online – there is no reference to any further work, their life or any other books illustrated by them!  The style of pen & ink line drawing is typical of the period and is similar to many better known contemporaries.
Whilst this artist remains something of a mystery I think this work is definitely worth showcasing here. If you know anything about this illustrator please leave a comment. Click the thumbnails for full size or view all 16 images from the bookthe images at my Flickr photo stream (all full size images are 300 dpi).

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