Christmas Puck

Puck stands beside a bellows camera, working a set of marionette dandies on strings, while a woman in a gold satin gown reclines across the room and lifts a lorgnette to inspect the show. The setting is all wealth: a Persian carpet, a hanging lamp, teal curtains, a low divan heaped with cushions. Harrison Fisher, better known later for his magazine-cover beauties, builds the scene as a study in staged desire, the sprite selling men to a bored heiress like so many puppets. The yellow of the dress is the brightest note on the page, set against deep reds and greens. PUCK arches overhead; the price and the word Christmas sit faint below. The cover flatters the reader's eye and needles her class in one breath.