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PALMER COX (1840-1924) "One evening Brownies, peeping down / From bluffs that overlooked the town..."
Illustration for the story "The Brownies on Bicycles" as published in The Brownies: Their Book (New York: The Century, 1887), page 19. Pen and ink on stiff paper mounted to card. 180x197 mm; 7 1/4x7 3/4 inches, image, on 12 1/2x9 1/2-inch mount. Signed "Palmer Cox" in lower right, captioned "On the Bluff" with notes to printer on mounting card recto, verso with The Century Co. stamp.
A charming illustration from the first volume of Cox's popular "Brownies" series. The full caption printed in the book reads: "One evening Brownies, peeping down / From bluffs that overlooked the town / Saw wheelmen passing to and fro / Upon the boulevard below. 'It seems,' said one, 'an easy trick / The wheel goes 'round so smooth and quick / You simply sit and work your feet / And glide with grace along the street.'"
Palmer Cox's Brownies were the Smurfs of their day. Not only were they the source for a long line of best-selling children's books but their Canadian-born creator widely licensed them for all kinds of merchandise. Even Kodak's Brownie Camera was named for them. The stories and pictures were serialized in St. Nicholas and Ladies' Home Journal and adapted as Sunday comic strip. At least two plays were based on the popular characters. Arguably Cox drew his best pictures for this work, the original The Brownies, Their Book. Cox had not yet developed the vast cast of ethnic Brownies, but the Irishman and The Dude can be spotted among the predominately Scottish band of fairies in these early drawings.
