'THE QUIVER'
BETWEEN THE
CLIFFS
In 1871, Arthur Hughes, the chief illustrator of this magazine, to whose presence it owes most of its interest (since other artists are well represented elsewhere, but he is rarely met with outside its pages), contributes thirty pictures to Dr. George Mac Donald's Princess and the Goblin, and fourteen others, some of which have been republished in Lilliput Lectures and elsewhere,—one, Mercy (p. 195), reappearing in that work, and again as the theme of a large painting in oils, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy 1893, and reproduced in The Illustrated London News, May 3rd of that year. A. Boyd Houghton, in Don José's Mule (p. 28), has a most delightfully grotesque illustration, and in two drawings for The Merry Little Cobbler of Bagdad (pp. 337–338), both in his 'Arabian Nights' vein, is typically representative. For the rest, W. Small in My Little Gypsy Cousin (p. 95), a good full page, and Ernest Griset with ten of his humorous animal pictures, combine with most of the artists already named to maintain the well-deserved reputation of the magazine. In 1872 Arthur Hughes supplies nine delightful designs for Gutta-Percha Willie, by the Editor; twenty-four to Innocent's Island, a long-rhymed chronicle by the author of Lilliput Levée, and a curiously fantastic drawing to George Mac Donald's well-known poem, The Wind and the Moon. Some one, with the initials F. E. F. (not F. A. F.), illustrates On the High Meadows in nineteen sketches; with the exception of two by J. Mahoney, the rest of the pictures are chiefly by F. A. Fraser, T. Green, F. S. Walker, W. J. Wiegand, and J. B. Zwecker.
In 1873 the magazine changed its name to Good Things. The most attractive illustrations are by Arthur Hughes: ten to Sindbad in England (pp. 25, 89, 129, 193, 236, 432, 481, 594, 641), two to Henry and Amy (pp. 72, 73), and one each to A Poor Hunchback (p. 17), The Wonderful Organ (p. 24), and My Daughter (p. 136). J. Mahoney has a small design, The Old Mill (p. 600). The rest are by Ernest Griset, W. J. Wiegand, and Francis Walker. On and after 1874 the cliché enters, and all interest ceases. At this time the business of trading in clichés had begun to assume large proportions. You find sometimes, in the course of a single month, that an English periodical hitherto exclusively British becomes merely a vehicle for foreign clichés. In this instance the change is so sudden that, excepting a few English blocks which we may presume had been prepared before, the foreigner is supreme. That, in at least three cases, the demise of the publication was merely a question of months is a sequel not to be regretted. But we need not assume too hastily that the cliché killed it—possibly it had ceased to be profitable before, and the false economy of spending less has tempted the proprietor to employ foreign illustrations.
BRITANNIA,
Another shilling illustrated magazine, was started in 1869. The British Museum, it seems, possesses no set, and my own copy has disappeared, excepting the first volume, but so far as that proves, and my memory can be trusted, it was illustrated solely by Matt Morgan, a brilliant but ephemeral genius who shortly after migrated to New York. The peculiarity of this magazine is that, like The Tomahawk, a satirical journal illustrated by the same artist, its pictures were all printed in two colours, after the fashion of the old Venetian wood-blocks. The one colour was used as a ground with the high lights cut away; the other block, for the ordinary convention of line-drawing. Some of the pictures are effective, but none are worthy of very serious consideration.
DARK BLUE
Although Dark Blue, a shilling monthly magazine, did not begin until March 1871, and ran its brief career until March 1873 only, it deserves mention here, because quite apart from its literary contributions which were notable, including as they did Swinburne's End of a Month, Rossetti's Down Stream, its earlier volumes contain at least two drawings that will be prized when these things are collected seriously. Besides, it has a certain cachet of its own that will always entitle it to a place. Its wrapper in colours, with three classically-attired maidens by a doorway, is singularly unlike that of any other publication; possibly F. W. L. would not be anxious to claim the responsibility of its design, yet it was new in its day, and not a bad specimen of the good effect of three simple colours on a white ground. Its serial, Lost, a Romance by J. C. Freund, was illustrated by F. W. Lawson, T. W. Perry, T. Robinson, and D. T. White; and its second serial, Take care whom you trust, by M. E. Freere and T. W. Ridley. A full-page drawing (they are all separately printed plates in this magazine), by Cecil Lawson, Spring, is far more interesting. Musaeus, by A. W. Cooper, a somewhat jejune representation of the Hero and Leander motive, and other illustrations by E. F. Clarke, W. J. Hennessey, M. Fitzgerald, D. H. Friston, S. P. Hall, J. A. H. Bird, are commonplace designs engraved by C. M. Jenkin; but The End of a Month, a study of two heads, by Simeon Solomon, and Down Stream, by Ford Madox Brown, (here reproduced from the original drawing on wood by kind permission of Mr. Frederick Hollyer), represent the work of two artists who very rarely appeared as magazine illustrators. The literature includes many names that have since become widely known, but the project failed, one imagines, to secure popular support, and so it must be numbered with the long list of similar good intentions.
THE BRITISH WORKMAN
It would be unjust to ignore a very popular penny magazine because of its purely philanthropic purpose. For from the first it recognised the importance of good illustrations as its great attraction, and enlisted some of the best draughtsmen to fulfil its didactic aim. We cannot help admiring its pluck, and congratulating the cause it championed (and still supports), and its fortune in securing coadjutors. The first number, issued in February 1855, has a design, the Loaf Lecture, by George Cruikshank on its first page; for some time H. Anelay and L. Huard were the most frequent contributors; then came John Gilbert and Harrison Weir, the earliest important Gilbert being The Last Moments of Thomas Paine (January 1862). As a sample of white-line engraving, a block after a medallion of the Prince Consort, by L. C. Wyon, and another of H.M. The Queen, would be hard to beat. Among these more frequent contributors, we find drawings by J. D. Watson, My account with Her Majesty (August 1864) and Parley and Flatterwell (December 1865) being the most notable; and others by A. W. Cooper, and lastly many by R. Barnes, whose studies of humble life yet await the full appreciation they deserve. These large and vigorous engravings maintain a singularly high level of excellence, and, if not impeccable, are yet distinctly of art, and far above the ephemeral padding of more pretentious magazines.