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The Spirit of “Haschisch” by Sidney Sime. Once upon a time, the discussion of drugs in British society wasn’t characterised by hysteria, paranoia and the repetition of falsehoods, but could encompass an open-minded curiosity. This is easier to do, of course, when the narcotics in question haven’t been subject to prohibition; it also helps if […]

Red Quechquemitls (2010) by Sylvia Ji. • The Blackout Mix, a pay-what-thou-wilt 49-minute mixtape, “specially designed to accompany (or simulate) a human-plant interaction”. Art by Arik Roper, music selection by Jay Babcock. • An ode to the many evolved virtues of human semen: “the penis is capable of dispensing a sort of natural Prozac” says […]

Did someone say “woody”? Plenty more toy antics at TheOneCam. • And yet more Haeckelisms: Praying in Haeckel’s Garden, recent works by artist Mary O’Malley. • Seasons of the Peacock, the perennial showoff as depicted by a handful of Art Nouveau artists. A couple of examples there I hadn’t seen before. • Dorian Cope presents […]

The interior of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County “Old Main” Building, 1874. Reblogged over the past few days on numerous Tumblr postings, none of whom had bothered to find out any details about the picture. I’m with Silent Porn Star on the contextless reblogging issue. • Keith Richards et Mick Jagger à […]

“The Go-Go wonder of Paris — That’s space girl. Transistors never wear down, they just go on and on — Even her heart is made of vinyl — It’s a marvy life — With nothing else to do but dance — Why not? – Love? — Forget it, baby — Not for her —” From […]

Cover design by Pamela Colman Smith for The Tarot of the Bohemians by “Papus” aka Gérard Encausse (1910). The Sapphire Museum of Magic and Occultism says it’s been around since 1999 but I don’t recall having come across it before. Among a variety of fascinating rarities is this gallery section devoted to some of the […]

Panneaux decoratifs (1900) by Manuel Orazi at NYPL. • Ghostsigns: “a collaborative national effort to photograph, research and archive the remaining examples of hand painted wall advertising in the UK and Ireland.” • Golden Age Comic Book Stories posts some Alphonse Mucha. • Voyage Fantastique – An illustrated guide to the body and mind at […]

Another label design of mine for the Adur Brewery. Much as I like Otto Weisert’s Arnold Böcklin typeface it’s something I’ve been reluctant to use in the past due to its lazy deployment by UK shop sign makers. The ribbon motifs and the hops are adapted from one of my Art Nouveau reference books, however, […]

The Golden Porch (1925). This post was prompted by an email from Deborah Hirsch who wrote to tell me about some original works she’d found by American illustrator Dugald Stewart Walker (1883–1937), scans of which are shown here with her permission. This made me take another look at Walker’s drawings, many of which I’d overlooked […]

A poster design by Yusaku Kamekura. More here, via A Journey Round My Skull. First of all this week, there’s a new interview posted which I gave last year to Crows ’n’ Bones magazine. The replies skate around the usual subjects (Cthulhu et al) and you also find out why I don’t think design and […]

Will at A Journey Round My Skull turned up this hand-coloured picture from Ronald Balfour’s illustrated Rubáiyát some of whose other drawings were featured here recently. That distant volcano is a curious detail. Related: Golden Age Comic Book Stories posted plates from Willy Pogány’s edition. • Authors on authors: China Miéville on JG Ballard; Rodrigo […]

Not sure how I managed to miss this at the Internet Archive, a copy of Pogány’s lavishly illustrated rendition of Wagner’s Lohengrin from 1913. This followed two earlier Wagner adaptations for Tannhaüser (1911) and Parsifal (1912). Golden Age Comic Book Stories has scans of the other two equally stunning volumes. Elsewhere on { feuilleton } […]

The Flapper by Frank X Leyendecker, Life magazine (1922). When I posted this splendid cover last July I said that I ought to make a post of Butterfly Women, so here is one. Don’t expect this to be at all comprehensive, women with butterfly wings are as legion as mermaids, these are merely a couple […]

A posting of Dugald Stewart Walker’s work this week at the always excellent Golden Age Comic Book Stories sent me back again to the Internet Archive to see if there might be further examples among their collection of scanned library books. Sure enough there’s not only a copy of the book which GACBS sampled from, […]

Thanks to Ms Bluewyvern at Blue Tea for honouring { feuilleton } with the Arte y pico award, the details of which are as follows: 1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language. […]

A Kipling-esque jungle tale by Walter de la Mare with Sidney Sime-esque illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop (1891–1980). The Three Mulla-mulgars was published in 1919 and is another book which can be downloaded at the Internet Archive. Inevitably (and conveniently), Golden Age Comic Book Stories has two pages of Ms Lathrop’s work including a number of […]

I was rather aggrieved a few weeks ago when I found a copy of James Whitcomb Riley’s The Flying Islands of the Night (1913) at the Internet Archive. Nice to find a free copy of a rare book but the grievance came as a result of an intention to write something about its illustrator, Franklin […]