Heidi Anniversary Mug: Heidi and Grandfather – Jessie Willcox Smith 1922

In 1922 the Philadelphia publisher David McKay brought out a new American edition of Heidi with pictures by Jessie Willcox Smith, then the most sought-after children's illustrator in the United States. Besides ten colour plates, Smith drew a small vignette for the head of each chapter. This is one of them: the white-bearded grandfather in his yellow hood, with Heidi leaning against him as they look into a book together.

Johanna Spyri, the author of Heidi, was born on 12 June 1827. Her two-hundredth birthday in 2027 is the occasion for this anniversary edition: six vignettes from the 1922 book, each on a mug of its own.

Digitally restored from the 1922 edition. The printed page carries the dot screen of the halftone process; here the drawing has been rebuilt line by line and the tint laid in as clean, flat colour, so that Smith's pen work reads crisply on white porcelain.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Jessie Willcox Smith, Heidi and Grandfather, 1922; chapter vignette, line drawing with one colour tint, from Johanna Spyri, Heidi (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1922). The New York Public Library, image ID 1699024. Public domain.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.