Q: What can you tell me about this book please (Black Beauty)? The spine shows it was published by Altemus but I can find no publishing date, etc in it. Thank you in advance.

A: Many of Altemus’ publisher’s series had various types and styles of artwork on the front covers. (See section on Publisher’s Series). In 1903-1904 one of the formats of the Petit Trianon Series was half vellum on the left. The right half either had floral pictures or there was an art nouveau illustration of a young lady in various poses. At this time two different illustrations have been seen that were initially posters done by Alphonse Mucha.

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was a well known Czech artist who excelled in the art nouveau arena with works designed for magazine covers, books, posters etc. It is most likely that Altemus appropriated these works for some of their covers without paying royalties. Mucha was not given credit within the books where his work appeared on the covers.