Winter Scenes

We hope this gets you into the spirit of the season! brought to you by the inventor of the modern Christmas card, Louis Prang, his "Winter Scenes" series of chromolithograph cards from the 1860s. Color printing was a novelty at the time, and Prang had introduced the new technology to America. He issued dozens of sets of cards to satisfy public demand.

There are twelve cards in this series, all lovingly mounted by a 19th-century collector in an album containing over 450 Prang cards. There are series devoted to fall leaves, wildflowers, wood ferns and mosses, as well as aphorisms and exotic places from around the world.

To see it, ask for Iconography 1722.

Spotlighting Satan

If you were a book illustrator faced with creating the first illustrations for Milton's Paradise Lost, where would you focus? Let's face it, at least in the early parts of the poem, Satan is the most compelling character, and he's certainly the most fun to draw. It's no surprise, then, that he gets top billing in Jacob Tonson's lavish 1688 printing of Paradise Lost.


Not that we are feeling any cynicism about Christmas or anything, but it seemed like a good time to give him a moment in the sun...

Tonson's beautiful edition is waiting for you. Just ask for Rare PR3560 1688.