Friday, May 29, 2009

Enchanting

As I keep saying, books for children published in the early 1900s had a special magic, that are still enchanting over 100 years later. This book only had two illustrations in it, but they were pretty special, and it was lovely to have the picture titles on  tissue overlays, as shown below. Haven't heard much of Beatrice Stevens, but hopefully there is more of her work out there somewhere.

Above, frontis with tissue overlay. Below, without.




3 comments:

Mr. Door Tree said...

Thomas,

You got me again with these lovely illustration by Stevens! I have a number of magazines with her decorative illos (Century, Harpers, Scribners) but I don't believe I have a single book illustrated by her! I have never been able to find any biographical information on Beatrice Stevens...do you know anything about her?

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Hi Mr. Door Tree!

Come to think of it I might have a small bit of info on her, but I'll need to search my files for that. I do know that she was born in 1876 and died in 1947 and painted landscapes as well as illustrations. I have another book with illustrations by her somewhere around here, but I'll need to search for that too. I didn't know she did anything for magazines, would love to see some of those.

Annie said...

Hi Thom,

I went searching for more of Beatrice Stevens, and here she is. These are beautiful! If I learn anything more about her, I'll share it with you.