{ feuilleton }

Bradley does Beardsley

Browsing various bookbinding sites this week turned up a gorgeous cover design I hadn’t seen before by the great Will Bradley (1868–1962). The Beardsley influence is unmistakable, of course, and more pronounced than one usually sees in Bradley’s work. Richard Le Gallienne is a familiar name to scholars of the London fin de siècle scene although I can’t testify to the quality of this novel which was published in 1898, the year of Beardsley’s death. If you want to give it a go, the Internet Archive has the entire thing in its Bradley livery.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Peacocks

Maria Nilsdotter

Dragon Skull Ring.

Jewellery by Swedish designer Maria Nilsdotter. Looking at her blog posts I’d guess that her snake bangle is inspired by the serpentine ring and bracelet set designed by Alphonse Mucha and Georges Fouquet for Sarah Bernhardt.

Snake bangle (blackened silver).

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Divine Sarah
• Lalique’s dragonflies

Penises and caustic soda: the case of the Cambridge antiquities

Peter Edwards times two

Sometimes it pays to have an unusual name… Ritual is a 1967 novel by David Pinner which has been claimed on many occasions to be the original source for the story which Anthony Shaffer wrote as The Wicker Man. An illustrator named Peter Edwards was responsible for the cover graphic and possibly the hand-drawn type as well. Searching for more of his work turned up this elegant cover for an Everyman title (at this rather tasty illustration blog) but little else.

Metatron’s Cube.

There is, however, a younger Peter Edwards who also happens to be an illustrator with a website here and an example of his work above. Are the two related, perhaps? In addition to this pair there’s a third Peter Edwards who paints portraits. Pity the poor artist trying to carve a niche for his or herself among a host of similarly-named contemporaries.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive
• The illustrators archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The music of The Wicker Man

Strange Attractions

Giant Squid of the Newfoundland Banks. From a painting by Herbert B Judy.

Today’s Giant Squid comes to you courtesy of the University of Washington’s Digital Collection and their Freshwater and Marine Image Bank. This book plate is from Sea-shore Life; The Invertebrates of the New York Coast and the Adjacent Coast Region (1905) by Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, and the Internet Archive happens to have copies of the entire book.

Which facts have nothing whatsoever to do with Ken Hollings’ photos of the Strange Attractor Salon which is in its final week at Viktor Wynd Fine Art, London. I was pleased to see the picture above which shows my pieces on the same wall as work by Julian House whose covers for the Ghost Box CDs I’ve enthused over in the past. Strange Attractor curator Mark Pilkington has posted further photos on his Flickr pages as has artist Ali Hutchinson whose beautiful work is also featured there.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Strange Attractor Salon
• Readouts
• Welcome to Mars
• The Séance at Hobs Lane
• SAJ again
• Strange Attractor Journal Three
• Ghost Box
• The Major Arcana