The Savoy

1896

Special Collections AP4 S28

London: Leonard Smithers

When decoration was present on the outside of the book, it took the form of either blocking onto cover material, or pasting printed paper sheets onto the front and back boards. An illustration has been blocked on to this red cloth Chatto & Windus edition of Bret Harte’s Susy. One illustration within this prairie-life romp is signed by J. A. Christie. Perhaps he designed the colourful ‘Suzette and Mrs Peyton’ on the cover? Other well-known artists designed covers. Aubrey Beardsley’s famous title-page design is repeated and gilt blocked on the royal blue cloth cover of Volume I of The Savoy, which was a rival publication to the Yellow Book. Irish-born Harry Furniss supplies a ‘gator’ and ‘Girlie’ image to George Farrow’s 1895 The Wallypug of Why, a children’s novel written in the tradition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.