This is another of what appear to be Palmer Cox's earliest illustrations for The Brownies series. Again, they look somewhat different -- some of them have wings and/or antennae, some are wearing one-piece suits, and nearly all have a less developed look about them. Not only that, but they are considerably smaller than the Brownies in Cox's later illustrations. These appear to be only a few inches tall, whereas if you look at the other cards, the more refined later Brownies appear to reach almost a foot in height.
...and now you see the little touch I mentioned a while back that I want to add to each card in the main deck. Not only does it bring more interest to the card (and it will be a different Brownie on each card, of course), but it gives me permission to move the text around and settle it slightly differently on every card. I may even find ways to make the Brownies and the text interact -- we'll see about that. I think this is just the touch that the deck needed... although I don't relish having to go back and rework each one of the 36 cards I've done so far...
-- Frede.
