The Carved Cupboard
by Amy Le Feuvre
Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1899
[Cover by Thomas Watson Ball?]
There is a question mark at the end of the attribution for the same reason that convention is followed in the catalog--this design is not in the Ball portfolio, is unsigned, and we have not seen a reference to Ball in a publisher's advertisement. This design looks like none of the confirmed Ball covers, so why do we attribute it to him? First, the lettering style is very much like several Ball covers of this period (see catalog pp. 20-23), and we know he did work for Dodd that year (catalog p. 63). More significantly, though this is the only cover of his we have yet seen that is an intricate work of Gothic design, we know that he was a master of the form from his work as a church decorator (catalog pp. 8, 15).
Rubáiyát of Doc Sifers
by James Whitcomb Riley
The Century Co., New York, 1897
[Cover by Thomas Watson Ball?]