This glorious menu art is by Alistair K MacDonald (1880-1948). He was a prolific Scottish artist whose charming and detailed works appeared regularly in British and American periodicals in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Buenos Aires he grew up on the Isle of Skye and was much in demand from magazine publishers from the 1920s. He was also a successful book illustrator.

MacDonald designed the cocktail and dinner menus for the Cunard White Star Line including this early 1925 work for the R.M.S. Aquitania. His work was still being used into the late 1940s by Cunard and he later produced a series of fantasy drawings for the front cover of The American Weekly depicting girls as birds, butterflies and insects. MacDonald was greatly admired for the delicacy of his line, the way he depicted movement and the charm and grace of his girls, who were often scantily dressed.

Courtesy Private Collection.