Wednesday 25 December 2013

Christmas: Illustrated London News

"What I Saw in the Fire" - Albert Crowquill

My very best wishes of the season to all readers of JSBlog.

I was interested to find that the Internet Archive has full sets of The Illustrated London News for several years in the early 1860s - worth reading for the quaint illustrations as much as the text - and each year this magazine featured a Christmas supplement with seasonal engravings. One of my favourites is this trippy - in fact quite Boschian - piece by "Albert Crowquill", What I Saw in the Fire , from the 1861 supplement (see here for zoomable source). "Albert Crowquill" was the pseudonym of the inventive and prolific illustrator Alfred Henry Forrester (1804-1872), who worked for a number of magazines including Punch, as well as illustrating books.

More about him later maybe - but for the moment, check out the Christmas supplements of The Illustrated London News: 1860 / 1861 / 1863 / 1864 / 1865.

"What I Saw in the Fire" - detail

"The Private View"- JA Fitzgerald

"Uncle John with the young folk: 'All prizes and no blanks!' - AB Houghton

"The Bachelor's Christmas Dinner" - JT Lucas

"Outdoor Relief" - GB Goddard

- Ray

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