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Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp., two financially troubled catalogers, have filed for bankruptcy protection.

On Tuesday, Vernon and several related entities filed for Chapter 11 protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to case documents.

Those entities include Lillian Vernon Internatnoal Inc., LV Catalog Holding Corp., LVC Retail Corp., ths Corporate Solution Inc., Everyday Celebrations Inc. and Rue de France Inc., according to case documents.

Vernon’s creditors include SmartPost, which is owed $2,181,042.81; Direct Holdings Worldwide LLC ($1,368,630); Gift (VA) LLC ($1.047,360); Federal Express Corp. ($990,359.98); Graphic Communication ($901,101.47) and Quad Graphics ($830,684.99); Linkshare Lockbox ($498,619); International Paper company ($455,298.25); and American Express ($334,375), according to court documents.

Also named were list companies Paradysz Matera ($473,431) and InfoUSA ($94,452), and several manufacturers.

Vernon has been in trouble for some time.

Two months after it cut 25% of its staff, gifts and housewares cataloger on Feb. 15 laid off about half of its full-time staff, or nearly 200 employees.

Citing devastating increases in postal and parcel rates, coupled with a paper price hikes and a decrease in value of the U.S. dollar, the company was left with no alternative than to find a new owner (Multichannel Merchant, Feb. 15. For more Multichannel Merchant coverage, click here.http://multichannelmerchant.com/news/Chapter11-Sharper-Lillian/)

Robert J. Eveleigh, Lillian Vernon’s chief financial officer, said in court papers that the company has “determined that a sale or orderly wind down of the debtors’ business is in the best interest of all stakeholders,” according to Multichannel Merchant.

He continued: “During the past holiday season expected sales growth did not occur, which resulted in lower profitability and significant unsold inventory. These factors combined to significantly impair (Lillian Vernon's) ability to find additional financing.”

On Monday, Sharper Image which listed $251.5 million in assets and $199 million in total debt as of Jan. 31, filed for Chapter 11 protection, according to case documents.

In a statement, the San Francisco-based company said it made this filing but “intends to continue to conduct business as usual while it devotes renewed efforts to resolve its operational and liquidity problems and develops a reorganization plan.”

Since Jan. 2005, Sharper Image’s annual sales have slipped more than 50%, from $776 million to less than $400 million, Multichannel Merchant reporter. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2008, total company sales fell 26%, to $374.9 million, compared to $506.7 million a year ago.

The firm’s creditors include United Parcel Service, which is owed more than $6,654,431; Quebecor World (USA) Inc. ($3,636,484); Tom Tom Inc. ($2,075,439); Garmin International Inc. ($2,070,133); Novus Print Media Inc. ($1,738,481); New ($1,669,471); Interactive Health ($954,950); Philips Consumer Electronics ( $913,399); SkyMall Inc. ($840,000); Thelen Reid Brown Raysman ($734,276); Google Inc. (%663,197); and Linkshare ($517,430), according to the filing.

Sharper Image has also been losing money steadily for some time and has been changing chief executive officers frequently.

Just 10 months after taking on the job of rescuing the high-tech gadgets and gifts merchant, Steve Lightman was replaced Feb. 14 as the San Francisco-based retailer’s CEO.

The company brought in turnaround specialist Robert Conway to replace Lightman just two weeks after announcing its total sales for fiscal year 2007 had slipped 26% (Multichannel Merchant, Feb. 15).