Neill's Bride Book

 I’ve posted in the past about The Bride Her Wedding Book (see here), a lovely little volume illustrated by John R. Neill in 1914, and published by the Reilly & Britton Co. I’ve picked up a few variations of the book since then, showing a couple different binding styles.

The most elaborate seems to be this, a book bound in a pictorial leatherette of some sort. The cover image of orange blossom is different from any of the other bindings I've seen, and the page edges are gilded. The blossom design is taken from a watercolor, presumably by Neill; the lettering is certainly his. This copy also includes the loose certificate that was originally inserted in the book, to be filled out by the wedding officiant.

Next up is this, sold as the “Board Edition”. This book has a padded vellum cover with a lovely drawing of roses, printed in color. This is definitely a Neill drawing - in fact they’re the same roses used on the wedding certificate - and the same lettering from the previous version is used, though in a different arrangement. This copy includes its original striped glassine dustwrapper and cardboard box. It’s interesting to note that the title on the box is The Bride Her Own Book, a slightly shortened version of the cover title. The certificate is present in this copy as well.

Here we have another version, this time the “Cloth Edition”. The book is bound in a fine grey cloth over beveled boards, and another new design is on the cover. This time it’s a single rose, stamped in gilt, with a re-designed title. This copy also retains its dustwrapper and box; the glassine wrapper has a moire pattern, and the box is considerably thinner due to the flat, rather than padded, covers of the book.

When the publisher changed their name to Reilly & Lee, the same basic design continued to be used. The cover is now a cream colored cloth, and the boards are no longer beveled. It’s still a lovely little book, but less luxurious, and by this time the printing of the finely detailed illustrations is a bit less sharp.

I believe there is at least one other variation of this cover. It appears to be bound in a glossy white textured cardboard, using the same imagery as above. The poor photo shown is from an old auction listing. With any luck I’ll run across one of these someday and learn more details!

The simple certificate that was included with the volume is shown on the right.

Pulpy Neill

Along with his his regular Oz work and other illustrative endeavors, John R. Neill produced a number of drawings for the adventure magazines, or pulps, of the early 20th century. Although he didn’t do the cover art of the magazines, quite a few issues are filled with his interior illustrations. These inexpensive publications were at their peak from the 1920's -1940's, coinciding nicely with Neill's career. Paper shortages during the second World War helped to bring about the decline of the pulps, and by 1957 the genre was fairly defunct.

I have three examples of this style of work, but I hadn't tried tracking down where the drawings may have been originally used. One is clearly labeled, while the other two have some notations but no definite instructions. Thanks to some swift research by Atticus Gannaway, I now know what my mystery drawings were intended to illustrate.

The labeled drawing was published in the December 20th, 1930 edition of Argosy Magazine. Argosy was the original pulp, starting in 1896 and running until 1942. For the cheap paper of the pulps, drawings were best when bold with strong line work - a style well suited to Neill! This particular illustration was used for the fourth and final installment of Murder on the High Seas, written by George F. Worts. It's shown here together with the magazine containing the first installment.

The back of the drawing bears the information of title, date and author, together with the stamp of the Frank A. Munsey Co., the publishers of Argosy.

As it turns out, the other two drawings were not used for publication, making identification a bit trickier - but Atticus did track them down!

The first was intended for a story in Adventure magazine, from February 15th, 1929. This was titled Off Finisterre, and written by Albert Richard Wetjen. A Neill drawing was used for the magazine, but it appears to be a simpler variation of the one in my collection. In both cases a man is seen on the deck of a ship, shooting a flare into the night sky. The published drawing is tall and narrow, rather than the square proportions of the unpublished version, which may explain why a different drawing was needed. The published version is more dramatic, with large areas of shadow and black sky - which may be another reason for the change. A notation reading "Off Finistere" is written on the unpublished piece.

The other drawing has the hand written caption “with every bit of his strength he swung out”, and “Headhunters p. 15” at the lower left. At first it appeared that this may have been drawn for the September 18th, 1919 issue of Adventure magazine; a story titled Head-Hunters and Gold was published, along with a different Neill illustration. But this was not the case, as Atticus soon found another tale. This was simply titled Head-Hunters, by Sidney Herschel Small, and was published in the June 20th, 1931 issue of Argosy. Once again a Neill drawing was used to illustrate the story, but this time I think it lacks the drama of the unpublished piece.

 

Far more dynamic than the sedate image showing natives filing through the jungle, the unused illustration pictures the hero swinging on a vine, about to attack the cannibals. In case of any doubt regarding its intended use, the handwritten caption precisely matches the printed moment in the story.

My Dear Mr. Neill (Part 3)

Click here for Part 1 of this article 

Click here for Part 2  of this article

Marie Lufkin succeeded in commissioning a large Oz painting from John R. Neill, to hang over the fireplace in her new living room. At the same time, a second smaller commission was placed; Neill was to design a bookplate for the Lufkins.

On the back of one of the sketches for the fireplace painting is a rough pencil drawing for the bookplate design. The figures of the Scarecrow and Tin Man are shown carrying piles of perilously stacked books, which are starting to topple. There are a couple drafts of lettering for the inscription, and of course Marie had input on this design:

   About the book plate. The only thing is that I would like it rectangular and to have the inscription "Marie and Elgood Lufkin - their book". Don't you think that that is sufficient? I don't think it is necessary to have "The Land of Oz" anyplace, do you, as that will be understood by the characters drawn -? However, you decide about that, as you know best, and I know that whatever you do will be perfect.

In a letter from November 4th, 1936, Marie thanked Neill for the finished fireplace painting, and went on to say:

We love everything you have done for us and we appreciate your kindness and friendship more than I can ever tell you. 

I am enclosing one of the finished bookplates. Aren't they keen? - We're crazy about them.  

The image on the finished bookplate is reversed from the sketch, with the characters enclosed in one of Neill’s fanciful and detail-filled borders. The cost of the drawing for this piece was $50.

A couple years later Neill designed a holiday card for the couple, for the year 1939-1940. The artist drew a picture of the Lufkin's living room, complete with Oz painting over the fireplace, and Oz characters dancing before the fire. The fire itself has been colored red, by hand.

The card is large, a full 8.5" x 11", and contains a holiday greeting hand-lettered by Neill. The artist was no stranger to designing holiday cards, as he had drawn his own family cards for a number of years (see post). This card was quite a change from the small Christmas note the Lufkins had sent to Neill the previous year!

The Lufkins obtained a variety of other things from Neill over the years, including a second, smaller, original Oz painting. This was designed by the artist for an antique shop owned by Marie, appropriately called The Land of Oz Antique Shop. 

After Neill's death in 1943, Marie sent a letter of condolence to his widow:

Dear Mrs. Neill:

I just heard of Mr. Neill's death this morning and I wanted to write you immediately to tell you how badly we feel for you and yours and the great loss his death will be to all.

I only met Mr Neill once, as you know, but I really feel that I knew him so well and I was very fond of him.

Elgood and I send you and your family our deepest sympathy and be assured that you will be constantly in our thoughts and prayers. 

Always sincerely

Marie Murray Lufkin

My Dear Mr Neill (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1 of this article.

 

About a year ago I blogged about the start of the relationship between the Lufkin family and Oz illustrator John R. Neill. Letters from Marie Lufkin to the artist show the progress of the connection, and how the friendship resulted in the building of a unique collection of the artist's work.

 

Marie was persistent in applying to Neill for artwork, particularly for the watercolors used in The Emerald City of Oz. After learning that he didn’t actually own any of those pieces, she commissioned the illustrator to create a large new Oz painting. This was to hang over the fireplace in the living room of the Connecticut farm that the Lufkins were renovating. I particularly like this note from Marie, which was enclosed in a letter dated July 21st, 1936. It details her ideas for the design of the painting:

I think the panel should have a border around. Don’t you?

 As you know my favorite characters are the Scarecrow, Pumpkinhead, the Wizard, Dorothy, Ozma & Glinda, the Tin Woodman, Toto, the Cowardly Lion & the Hungry Tiger, Tick-Tock. (sic)

She was fairly comprehensive in her character list!

The back of the page also has a sketch showing the size for the painting, and indicating how it would be placed above the fireplace. 

The letter that was included with the note brings up the apparently embarrassing question of what the painting would cost:

It's a very ticklish subject Mr Neill, and I hate writing or talking about it, when you were such a wonder to say that you would do it - but I have to - How much money will it cost? Now it's out and I'm relieved - It's been worrying me for weeks how I could ask and I guess the simplest way is the best.

Once that ticklish question had been answered, the work began in earnest. A letter from August 14th reads:

Dear Mr. Neill -

I loved talking to you the other night and was delighted to hear that you are really on your way with "our Oz painting" - It sounds gorgeous & El & I both loved your idea of the Cowardly Lion & the Hungry Tiger leading the procession - DO send me a sketch of it soon - I can hardly wait to see it!

Neill created a number of color sketches for this project, in various sizes and degrees of finish. I have three early rough drafts, trying out layouts, character placement and color schemes. Eventually a more finished piece was sent to the Lufkins for their approval, and finally the actual painting was completed.

 

The finished artwork was shipped on October 10th, 1936. The shipping bill reveals the answer to Marie Lufkin's "ticklish question"; a value of $150 is listed for the final painting. 

 

Marie was thrilled with the piece and in a letter dated November 4th, 1936 she thanks Neill for the painting:

The painting is just too perfect and makes the living room. We are going to put a very light yellow wash on the walls - How do you think that sounds? Also Venetian blinds & I have not decided on the chintz - It sounds finished doesn’t it? Well it is, in my mind, but you should see the room actually! At the present moment there is a buzz saw going at top speed. Shavings all over the floor & carpenters banging away.

 

 She also says:

Of course I wanted you to send me a bill, and I want to thank you for being so generous and thoughtful with your work. As soon as our addition is finished Elgood and I want you and Mrs. Neill to come up for a night. You would wouldn't you? We're not a bit sporty as you know, so you wouldn't have to do anything you didn't want to and we'd love to have you both.

It doesn’t appear that Neill ever did make it up to the farm. I believe Marie only met him in person once.

When the house was sold in later years, the painting was removed by the family and preserved. A page from the prospectus for the house sale shows the living room, with the Oz panel still in its original location (image courtesy of Brady Schwind).

 

Click here for Part 3 of this article.

More Macaronis

 Last summer I posted some postcards, from John R. Neill’s series of comical drawings titled Life Among the Macaronis. Since then I’ve picked up two additional cards in the set.

A Scandal in High Life is an image I've seen before. A dapper Macaroni is shocked to read in the paper that his grandfather was a draper! An added feature of this card is the verse, written by Neill, that tells the story explaining the gentleman's shocked expression; the other cards in the series just have titles. The series of golfing cards I previously posted all used cropped images, and this card has also been cropped from the original 1904 Sunday Magazine page.

In the Studio is a card I haven't run across before. Here we have an artist working away at his easel, painting a cat. But the poor animal has been completely trussed to the stool it sits upon, to prevent escape! Two gentlemen observe the painting process. This drawing includes typical Neill touches in the elaborate wine bottles and small glass. I would assume that this has also been cropped from a larger drawing.

This brings the total so far to five cards in this series. I don’t know if this is the entire set, or if there are more waiting to be discovered!

My Dear Mr. Neill (Part 1)

In August of 1935, John R. Neill received a letter that had been forwarded from the publishers Reilly & Lee. Looking at the envelope, it's clear that the letter did a bit of roundabout traveling! It was from Mrs. Elgood Lufkin of Rye, New York, and read as follows:

   My dear Mr. Neill -

    Mr Lufkin and I ever since we were very small have loved the Oz stories and their illustrations. So much so that now that we are older we have read them all to our children who love them and are as intrigued by them as we were and are.

    In fact we have called our place which we got last year “The Land of Oz”.

    However this is all aside from the point. We were very fortunate in obtaining two of your original water colors - the “Interior of the Scarecrow’s House” and the Scarecrow’s House with Dorothy the Wizard and Uncle Henry coming to pay the Scarecrow a visit. We are terribly anxious to get any others that we could and I wondered if by writing you and explaining a bit how we feel whether you would be willing to sell any to us.

    It would mean a great deal to the children and to us to have some more of your illustrations and I want you to know that they will be highly prized by us.

    Will you drop me a line and let me know whether you will do this for us. Please?

    Always Sincerely,

    Marie Murray Lufkin
    Aug. 8 1935

 

Once the letter eventually made its way to him, Neill must have replied promptly as another note from Marie, dated September 1st, followed. In this, she offers to send her car and chauffeur to bring Neill to have tea and visit. Or, if that didn’t work -

 …If you do not feel like coming out, if I sent the car would you let the chauffeur bring some out here to me? I couldn’t make out from your letter whether you had any or whether you would be willing to do some illustrations...

The offer of a car and chauffeur indicates that the Lufkins were people of some means; after all, 1935 was not far past the height of the Great Depression. In fact, Elgood Lufkin was the vice president of the Bank of New York. The couple had purchased a farm in Connecticut the previous year, and were hard at work renovating and decorating the house. As it happens, Neill bought a farm in Flanders, New Jersey the following year; most likely, the work of restoring the properties was a common point of interest between them. I particularly like the offer of sending the chauffeur to pick up a selection of artwork to view!

Apparently, there was no response to this letter and the correspondence died. But Marie wasn't ready to give up, and in June of 1936 another letter was forwarded to Neill from Reilly & Lee. She reintroduces herself, and again declares her interest in buying some Oz artwork.

…As I received no reply I took it that you were not interested but even so I am writing again to ask if you have any of the original illustrations for the “Emerald City" besides the exterior & interior of the Scarecrows house as we have those already.

    Please reply one way or the other as I am so anxious to know if we can ever find any for ourselves...

An intriguing side note to the correspondence is the fact that the Lufkins already owned two watercolors from The Emerald City of Oz! How they managed to acquire these drawings is not known, but it does seem to indicate that Oz art could be found in the wild. This time, she did receive a quick reply from Neill and hurried to respond:

  

 …What a relief receiving your letter! You have no idea how we loved it. From now until you have time to do something for us, I am going to pester you with letters so that you won’t get a chance to lose our address again.

    Your farm at Flanders sounds really magical. Just the way we feel ours is - and you must be the perfect wizard because although you say you are “expected to be a sort of Wizard of Oz without the qualifications,” to us you will always be the real Wizard of Oz, as you have made the stories live for us and our children…

Clearly, having finally won Neill’s attention, Marie wasn’t about to let go! This was to be the start of a relationship that continued until Neill’s death in 1943. The family were fans of Neill, and of the Oz books, and they assembled a unique collection as they befriended the artist. The first Oz book Neill wrote, 1940’s Wonder City of Oz, is even dedicated to the Lufkins.

 Click here for Part 2 of this article.

Macaronis

 Life Among the Macaronis was a series of comical drawings created by John R. Neill, and published in The Sunday Magazine, a syndicated Sunday newspaper supplement used by a variety of papers around the country. The magazine was in circulation from 1904 through 1916, using a small title change depending on what city and paper it supplemented. Neill seems to have contributed around the period of 1904 - 1906.

This example was the rear cover of the May 15th, 1904 issue, not long before the publication of Neill's first Oz work in The Marvelous Land of Oz. The series of limericks were written by Neill, to accompany his humorous drawings. Postcards of the characters were also produced; here are three examples, distributed by the Boston Sunday Post, showing cropped versions of the characters seen above:

The individual cards have been titled “Off for the links”, “A terrific drive”, and “A disaster on the links”. The extra space at the right of each card was for jotting a short message - the back of early postcards was reserved for an address, no additional writing.

Neill seems to have been fond of his Macaronis; he used the same elongated figures over a number of years, as seen in a 1901 single panel Christmas cartoon.

 

They also bear a strong resemblance to the Soldier with the Green Whiskers in 1904's The Marvelous Land of Oz, and the Hilanders in John Dough and the Cherub, from 1906 -

 Here's an undated original drawing by Neill, of a musical Macaroni puffing on a horn and surrounded by other whimsical wind instruments. This piece is inscribed "To my old friend M. L. Stein", over the artist's signature.

A Macaroni was a late 18th century fop or dandy, an overly elegant figure extravagant in clothing and manner. This helps explain the traditional lyric from Yankee Doodle Dandy - "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni"!

Buyer Beware!

Another spurious John R. Neill drawing has emerged on the market from Rhyton Gallery - this is the third that I've seen in the past year, and this time the artist has chosen to try replicating a drawing that I own.

 The drawing chosen is a chapter heading of Glinda, from 1914's Tik-Tok of Oz. The other two copied drawings that the gallery offered were both based on pieces from The Wonder City of Oz, a much later title featuring Neill's late style of drawing - bolder and simpler. In attempting the more delicate style of Glinda, the artist's deficiencies are pronounced - there's really no comparison between the original and the copy.

 Aside from the obvious visual differences, the new drawing is on paper rather than artist's board. The artist was probably unaware of the fact that the original of this illustration is drawn on a much larger board than the image itself. The double ruled line beneath the drawing, something seen on most of the chapter titles from this book, has been discarded and a nice fat fake signature has been added - in spite of the fact that none of the Tik-Tok drawings are signed. It's the same signature seen on the other two drawings previously offered, and of the wrong style for this time period.

While I feel the addition of the signature makes this an outright forgery, it doesn't stop the piece being offered. There has at least been an improvement in the style of listing on Live Auctioneers. Rather than being listed as "attributed to" John R. Neill, it is now listed as "in the manner of". This is a significant change, as anyone can try drawing something in the manner of another artist - but there’s no excuse for sticking a fake signature on the piece. The listing already has two bids  - as always in collecting, Buyer Beware!

Land of Oz Story Book

Here's a fun bit of ephemera - the Land of Oz Story Book, published in Great Britain by Hutchinson & Company. This is an abridged version of the second Oz book, 19 pages long, published in a softcover pamphlet form. Hutchinson also published the Land of Oz Paint Book, in a similar format; this had a cover featuring more characters, as well as interior illustrations to color, by the same artist. There’s no date, but I would guess these books are from the same late 1930's/early 1940’s period of the other Oz books the company produced. These were intended to tie in with the British premiere of the MGM film.

The cover shows Mombi hiding behind a tree, watching Tip and a rather unusual Jack Pumpkinhead pass by. Jack's human face is a bit disconcerting, and reminds me of some of the early 20th century stage productions, like The Wogglebug, The Pearl and the Pumpkin, and The Lady of the Slipper.

The interior makes use of several of the original John R. Neill drawings, but due to the format of the book, the placement can be rather haphazard. All three scenes shown below happened earlier in the story!