Where did I see this image of dragons around a jeweled book?

July 18, 2015 2:19 PM

There's an illustration I remember fairly vividly from when I was a kid, but I don't remember whether it was a print or in a book. It depicted tiny dragons, smoke curling from their nostrils, lounging around and/or on a big, beautiful book with cabochons and other jewels either set on or around the book, perhaps with candles and greenery nearby as well.

The image shows this from the perspective of slightly above and to one side of the book and dragons, but not from directly above. I don't know whether this was a stand-alone illustration or an illustration in the book, nor whether there was more than one such illustration. it might have been inside the front or back cover. I was really into jewels as a kid, and I remember being entranced by this image and spending some time staring at it. This could have been from the '80s or '90s or earlier. Anyone else remember this?

posted by limeonaire to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

That sounds familiar. Could it have been a library poster?
posted by EvaDestruction at 2:31 PM on July 18, 2015

Response by poster: Yeah, it definitely could have been. I truly have no idea where I saw it, just that it was beautiful and I spent time staring at it, largely because of the jewels, but the whole thing was fairly enchanting. This notion of tiny dragons around beautiful books seems to be a thing, as there's an Etsy shop that makes these, but I don't know whether there's a shared inspiration there.
posted by limeonaire at 2:41 PM on July 18, 2015

Sounds familiar to me, too, and I had a fondness for fantasy and dragons and am likely to be in the same age bracket. I haunted the library, and went through lots and lots of Scholastic and etc book club books, so it's really hard for me to guess where it might have been. I'm vaguely thinking it was a large image, though, which would suggest a poster of some sort.
posted by stormyteal at 3:07 PM on July 18, 2015

This is probably published too late, but maybe it's Dragonology?
posted by Requiax at 3:35 PM on July 18, 2015

This does not really match your description - especially the jewels - but just in case ... I assume you are not thinking of the Escher's Reptiles.
posted by The Architect at 3:38 PM on July 18, 2015

Response by poster: It doesn't appear to be either of those, but thank you, and do keep the suggestions coming! It's also not any of the Randal Spangler illustrations I've seen, though his illustrations do have elements in common with the one I'm thinking of (tiny dragons, tiny dragons reading books, cabochons everywhere). His tiny dragons are much more cutesy than the ones I'm remembering, which were clearly illustrated but were more photorealistic (if that's a word that can be applied to illustrations involving tiny dragons).
posted by limeonaire at 3:44 PM on July 18, 2015

Maybe the cover of Inkheart by Cornelia Funke?
posted by puddledork at 4:07 PM on July 18, 2015

Anything like this? The description puts me in mind of Graeme Base's work.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 4:12 PM on July 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is it “Diabolical Dragons Daintily Devouring Delicious Delicacies” from Graham Base's "Animalia"? At least one image from that book (the lions) was made into a library poster.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:12 PM on July 18, 2015

Response by poster: It's not either of those, either, alas. The idea with Inkheart is similar—the ratio of size of dragons to size of cover—but it doesn't have the other elements. The illustration I'm thinking of was a bit more sepia-toned (though still full color). Re: Animalia, that book looks familiar, but it's not that illustration—the one I'm remembering had dragons that were tiny relative to the size of the image of the book that they were on, and did not involve food or desserts.

To be clear, it wasn't just that there might have been a physical book that had dragons on or in it. It's that the actual illustration I'm remembering, which may or may not have been in a book, depicted an image of a book with dragons on and around it.

This is definitely useful for finding directions to look in, though, and I thank you for the continued suggestions!
posted by limeonaire at 5:55 PM on July 18, 2015

A Wizard of Earthsea or Dragonsong cover, maybe?
posted by goblinbox at 6:08 PM on July 18, 2015

Is there any kind of archive of summer reading program posters anywhere? I think that's what I'm remembering, is one of those.
posted by stormyteal at 9:15 PM on July 18, 2015

I tried searching the ALA poster archives, but struck out with "dragon" and "jewel." But I didn't see a lot of the library posters I remember from childhood, so either it's not exhaustive, or the ALA wasn't the source of all those posters.
posted by EvaDestruction at 10:38 PM on July 18, 2015

I like the library poster suggestion but I've also come up blank on my searches on that.

I'm wondering if you had other media it could have been on? Might give another avenue for searching. For example any of these seem possible?
-jigsaw puzzle
-trapper keeper folder
-paperback YA fantasy book
-game books, like Dungeons and Dragons manuals or video game artwork
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:02 PM on July 19, 2015

This immediately made me think of a A Book Dragon, but google images shows no jewels.....it does sound really familiar!
posted by john_snow at 11:01 AM on July 20, 2015