The Red Axe. (Illustrations by Frank Richards.)
A historical adventure novel by Samuel Rutherford Crockett, set among the hereditary executioners of a German duchy, published by Harper & Brothers in 1899 with twenty-seven plates by Frank Richards for the general novel-reading public. The plates are halftone reproductions of tonal wash paintings, printed in grey-green ink with quoted dialogue captions: dim stone and timber interiors, figures in doublets and cloaks, deathbeds and candle-lit chambers, useful for heavy chiaroscuro, silhouetted crowd groupings, and captioned plate layouts.
