Birds Caught Kissing. Gnomes, Elves, Fairies and Insects watch. c1915.

by Stuart Hardy, Evelyn

Antique print of Elves and Gnomes with Insects - with superior gnomes, laughing elves dangling traditional-mistletoe overhead, delicately embarrassed fairies.. and beetle parents hurrying their young away from the corruptive influence.

Wood engraving by E. Stuart Hardy for The Book of Gnomes, written by Fred E. Weatherly. First edition was published in London in 1895 by Ernest Nister. This edition published in 1915 (later colour). Evelyn Stuart Hardy was the name used by Beatrice Evelyn Elizabeth Hardy (1865-1935), who was born in Clifton, Bristol, to a family of artists.

Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) was a London-based barrister who worked the western circuit to Bristol, and during the first world war pleaded cases for military courts in the Salisbury Plain. At night, between appointments, and on the train between trials, F.E. Weatherly wrote around 3,000 childrens stories, songs and poems. His best known lyrics were for the well-known songs, 'Danny Boy' and 'Roses of Picardy'. E. Stuart Hardy's illustrations for Weatherly's The Book of Gnomes are some of the most delightful children's illustrations ever done.

The thick paper has age-discolouration, which seems to compliment the forest scenes, rather than detract from them. To the border of the image measures 220 x 265mm (approximately 8 5/8 x 10 1/2 inches). There is a vertical crease at lower left corner, and a conservation tape repaired slight extremity tear at lower edge.