Puck Easter

Charles Jay Taylor's cover for the April 13, 1898 Easter issue shows the magazine's cherubic mascot, Puck, standing atop a floral hat box and holding an ornate gilt mirror so a fashionably corseted young woman can admire her rose-laden Easter bonnet. Scattered around them are open millinery boxes spilling ribbons and flowers. The composition carries no overt political argument; it is a seasonal advertisement for Puck itself, framing the magazine as the flattering glass through which fashionable New York sees itself. Taylor, a prolific Puck cover artist, keeps the image light—Easter as consumer ritual, feminine vanity gently indulged rather than satirized. No ethnic caricature is present. Price noted on the masthead: ten cents.