The Auckland Bell lasted only for a relatively brief time in the 1880s -- but its masthead, featuring progress images and even the royal standard flag, caught my eye on a trawl through some of the early newspapers at the Auckland Central Library.
The Weekly News in its own 1880s incarnation had the same idea -- sumptuous use of engraved illustration.
The Observer started out with, I suppose, a pantomime character in 1880 ...
... who grew up and developed a beard by halfway through the decade ...
... to be replaced altogether by a gent on a top hat and a shout-out to the more famous Punch magazine in the late 1890s.
Compared with all this, the New Zealand Illustrated magazine of 1899 looked rather anemic.
What one used to refer to as flair with dash and elan :)
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