to the Exhibit of

the 1902 fiction article

"The House that Jack and Jill Built"
in the Delineator Magazine

Featuring illustrations from photographs of
J. William Fosdick's panels
of The Miller's Daughter by Tennyson

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The House That Jack and Jill Built by Grace MacGowan Cooke, 1902 Featuring photographic illustrations by Fannie Rogers White of a mantelpiece of three panels by J. William Fosdick with verses and a decorative portrait of The Miller's Daughter written by Alfred Lord Tennyson Adapted from Delineator Magazine, September 1902, pp. 990–994.

Only a year after the 1901 American magazine featured two pyrography panels by Margaret Fernie Eaton used to illustrate a poem, Delineator magazine published the fiction story displayed here by Grace MacGowan Cooke that is illustrated from photographs by Fannie Rogers White. It includes two pictures of a triptych of panels by J. William Fosdick of Tennyson's "The Miller's Daughter," and a third photograph featuring a leather curtain also done in pyrography by an unknown artist.

Because "The House That Jack and Jill Built" is fiction, the author felt no need to mention the artists' names. Regarding Fosdick's triptych, the author wrote the following in the first paragraph of the second part of p. 990:

"The over-mantel is three panels of burnt-wood, almost the only piece of decorative work in the house that had been purchased outright. This was from the hand of a noted New York artist in pyrography. It shows Tennyson's Miller's Daughter in its central panel, and the two side panels give stanzas from the poem in quaint lettering."

The "Miller's Daughter" by Fosdick is already well known because of having been featured in two earlier articles (in 1892 and 1894) as well as in an 1896 catalogue. (In all three cases only the central single panel was shown rather than the triptych; therefore, seeing all three panels here came as quite a surprise.) The artist who did the leather pyrography curtain, featured in this article at the bottom of page 992, however, is still unknown.

The triptych appears twice in this article: first, pictured in context with the first fireplace (at the top of p. 991) which it adorns so beautifully (did you notice a small child there in front of the fireplace lying on the floor reading?), and then again in a close-up view (at the top of p. 992). The article here is one of a series on this topic. It is very nicely done, as it is a work of fiction with its own running plot for the characters Jack and Jill, while at the same time integrating the topic of interior design that progresses along with it. Fosdick's triptych fit in very well here.

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If you have either any questions to ask or any additional information to offer on this article, the unknown artist who did the leather curtain, or the triptych of panels by J. William Fosdick, please e-mail the E-Museum Curator.

You are leaving the exhibit of
the 1902 article in Delineator Magazine
Featuring illustrations from photographs
of J. William Fosdick's panels
of The Miller's Daughter

or continue on your tour to one of the following:

Pyrographic Art Exhibit Halls:

Portraits and Paintings

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