Christmas Puck / W. E. Hill

This cover for *Puck*'s 1911 Christmas issue, signed by W. E. Hill and dated in the lower left, forgoes the magazine's usual political bite entirely in favor of seasonal advertisement. A smiling young woman in a fur-trimmed black coat and wide-brimmed hat—adorned with a dramatic red ostrich plume—holds a sprig of mistletoe against a gold background dusted with falling snow. A red bead necklace catches the eye against dark fur. The composition is pure holiday promotion: *Puck* selling its Christmas number at 25 cents from the Puck Building, New York. Hill renders an idealized Gibson-era beauty, a commercial image typical of mainstream magazine covers as the humor weekly competed with *Life* and *Judge* for holiday newsstand sales.