Frank Cheyne Papé was a British illustrator of the “Golden Age” of book illustration. Born in 1878, there appears to be very little information available to us about his life and work. We know that his first work was around 1908. This early coloured work was similar in style and maybe influenced by artists of the 1890′s [...]

For those of you who don’t know, the Library of Congress recently took the unusual but comendable step of uploading an initial 3000 (and counting – now over 6,500) images from its vast collection to Flickr, the popular picture hosting site. The idea behind this move is to invite the public to tag the images [...]

Sorry for the lack of posts recently – I’ve been rather busy with other stuff so have neglected the blog somewhat. Anyway, today I have some amazing illustrations from a 1915 publication entitled ‘Researches Into Chinese Superstitions’ by Henry Doré. This appears to be a multi volume work and these particular illustrations are taken from [...]

Virginia Frances Sterrett was an American illustrator best known for her work for the 1928 publication of  The Arabian Nights. I have been an admirer of her brilliant illustrations for some time but knew little about her life and career prior to researching this post. Her story, it seems is something of a tragic one. [...]

Sidney H Sime was an illustrator of the “Golden Age” (late 19th & early 20th centuries) best known for his work for Irish story teller Lord Dunsany. His carreer interested me as he is from my home city of Manchester. Seemingly, he was a “jack of all trades” before following his career as an artist. [...]

Journal des Dames et des Modes was a French fashion periodical published in the 1910′s and illustrated by some of the finest illustrators of the Art Deco period. Featured here are a selection of illustrations from what appeared to be a regular feature of the magazine – Costumes Parisienes. Many of the images are by George [...]

Browsing the Internet Archive this week, I came accross an Italian book with the magnificently long title: Le guerre festiue delle reali nozze de’ serenissimi e cattolici re di Spagna Carlo secondo e Maria Luisa di Borbone : celebrate nella felice e fedelissima città di Palermo, dall’ Illustrissimo Senato della medesima citta … nell’anno M.DC.LXXX [...]

I found these magnificent posters on the Library of Congress’ ‘Prints & Photographs Online Catalog’ They were commissioned by the Austrian government during World War One to encourage Austrian citizens to subscribe to various Kriegsanleihe or ‘War Loan’ schemes. These 2 posters are my favorites. The artist is Thomas Fasche – I find it interesting that posters [...]

French illustrator George Barbier led the ultra fashionable “Knights of the Bracelet” school of artists throught the 1910′s & 20′s. He designed theater and ballet costumes and worked with Erte on costumes for the Folies Bergere: His style for me, exemplifies the cool decadance of the Art Deco period – you can almost imagine, just [...]

The following prints are taken from a 1922 book ‘Architectural Drawing‘ by Wooster Bard Field who was an Architect and Assistant Professor of Engineering Drawing at the Ohio State University. These type of drawings are very popular at the moment as are any vintage materials related to building, house design / construction. Prints with this type [...]