Saturday, July 9, 2011

Lilliput Magazine

Lilliput was a small format British monthly publication founded in 1937. The magazine featured short stories, humor, and arts related subjects. In the 1950's is was also known for publishing fairly daring pictures of female nudes. It ceased publication in 1960 when it merged with the pornographic magazine Men Only.

Until 1949, every issue had a front cover illustration by Walter Trier, which showed a scene that always included a man, a woman and a small terrier dog. Somewhere around 1949/52, Edward Gorey created a cover design for the magazine. I do not know if this cover art was actually used for the magazine, but the art is spectacular.
I recently acquired the original artwork for this cover. The image appears as a stained glass window and features three men in an old fashioned car who are obviously lost. The line work on this piece is breathtaking, many lines being mere whispers of the pen on paper. Much care has been taken to modulate the colors of the pieces of "glass", exactly as this style of window would be created. The price symbol for One Shilling is shown in the upper right hand corner. The signature in the lower right hand corner is early and fairly unusual, being signed EStJG for Mr. Gorey's full name ~ Edward St. John Gorey.

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