Ohhh Jumping Gnome, where have you been all my life? Stunning illustrations in some dazzling acid pinks and greens here in this tome by June E. Forde and illustrated by Paul Deassau.
I’m amazed at how vivid and bright the colours are – it looks like screen-print quality. I couldn’t find a date for this either in the book or online, but the colours and these sorts of whimsical illustrations suggest the late 1940’s – surprisingly I’ve seen a few books with a similar look and neon bright colour schemes dating to 1947/1948.
I was unable to find any definitive information about the author or illustrator but it’s quite likely that Paul Dessau is the same one described here, an illustrator of religious texts for children and interestingly, a ‘Fireman Artist‘ in the Second World War, working as a firefighter but also recording what he saw through sketches or paintings


Oops, quite huge hiatus on my part here recently. This is my first post for an age due to foraging in various foreign climes at the Pictoplasma character design festival in Berlin. More to come soon from there!