Puck X-Mas

Puck perches on a settee beside a young woman, the two of them holding a songbook labeled Christmas Carol and singing, mouths open, from the same page. She wears a flowered white gown; he a green tunic with a pink sash. A holly wreath and looping red ribbons wind through the masthead overhead. PUCK X-MAS shares the top, 1893 and Price 25 cents lettered in at the right. The image sits high on cream paper, its lower corner left as bare washed color, which gives the drawing room. This is the sprite in his most companionable mood, no satire, just a duet. Early-1890s numbers like this one lean on charm and open space more than the packed, edge-to-edge holiday scenes Puck would print a decade later.