Scherenschnitte

In German, the word means "scissor-cuttings." Thanks to my coworker Jackie at the reference desk, I now have a name for the gorgeous artwork I've been seeing on some historical fiction book jackets.

In past blog entries, we looked at John Harwood's The Séance as well as Robert Löhr's The Chess Machine, the latter in a post that compared the hardcover with the paperback. At the time, I preferred the newer, redesigned cover, but now that I have a copy of the former in hand, I'm changing my story. The JPG below doesn't do it justice; you miss much of the crispness of the edges and the intricate detail of the design.

Both the Groff and the Löhr are featured in AbeBooks' gallery of 30 Novels Worth Buying for their Covers Alone, as Lucy noted in a post last month. (I'm three out of four for owning these. The Claudel is out in June.) Four examples doesn't yet indicate a trend, but are there any others I'm missing?