Walter Crane Picture Book

CALDECOTT, R. Sing a Song for Sixpence. London, George Routledge and Sons, (1880).
First edition of a charming picture book, with pictures for the text of one song, by R. Caldecott (1846-1885), who with Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway dominated children's book-illustration in England at the end of the 19th century, with Evans as the finest colour-printer at the time, and Routledge or Frederick Warne as publishers, for both London and New-York. The song was an old English nursety rhyme and had earlier been illustrated by Walter Crane, also engraved by Evans. The technique of colour-printed wood-engravings, which was brought to sheer perfection by the London book artist Edmund Evans, was never practiced in the Netherlands. The price of one shilling is mentioned at the top of the front cover, which also includes the legend: "One of R. Caldecott's Picture Books" and a small scroll with the publisher's name. On back cover other picture books by Caldecott are listed, with wood-engraved illustrations, all for the price of "One Shilling each". At the bottom of back cover the colophon reads: "Edmund Evans, engraver and printer, Raquet Court, Fleet Street".
Good copy, with ms. dedication by a "Grandmama Vaughan", dated 1886.- (Wrappers sl. rubbed, sl. repairs to spine and back cover).
Muir p. 199, et passim; Die Bilderwelt 2244; Gumuchian 1018; Osborne Coll. pp. 104-105; cf. KLKL 742 (undated ed., not further described); Die Bilderwelt 2223 (the same title, illustrated by Walter Crane and published in 1866); on the processing of the plates, see: Bibelebontse Berg p. 553.

Sm.4to. Orig. wrappers with colour-printed wood-engraved illustrations on front cover and black-and-white illustrated advertisements on back cover. With 8 colour-printed wood-engraved plates and 22 wood-engraved plates printed in sepia, each with a few words or a single line of a popular nursery rhyme underneath, engraved by Edmund Evans after designs by the author. 30, (2) pp., incl. wrappers.

[SW: English; Picture Books; Children's Books]

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CRANE, Walter. The Baby's Opera. A Book of Old Rhymes with new Dresses. The Music by the Earliest Masters. London, New York, Edmund Evans, Frederick Warne & Co., (1877).
First edition of the first of the two beautiful children's picture books with nursery rhymes by Walter Crane and with music by his sister Lucy Crane. The book is the counterpart - or "companion" as the artist himself put it - to <I>The Baby's Opera</I>. According to Scheinitz <I>The Baby's Opera</I> was at first rejected by the booksellers, but was so well received by the general public that the first issue of 10,000 copies was sold within four weeks.<I> The Baby's Bouque</I>t followed after two years, and was, if possible, still more beautifully designed and executed. In these books Crane realized his views about children's picture books to the full, almost turning them into medieval illuminated manuscripts.
Fine copy.
Scheinitz, <I>Walter Crane</I>, p. 33, and ill. no. 19 on p. 21; Percy Muir, p. 186, et passim about the artist; KLKL 620; Osborne Coll. p. 93; Die Bilderwelt 2227; Seebass 430; Gumuchian 1920.

Sm.4to. Orig. half cloth, with beautifully designed and decorated boards, printed in black and white on reddish brown boards, red painted edges. With finely designed and illustrated title-page printed in light blue and yellow, colour-printed wood-engraved frontispiece, 10 full-page colour-printed wood-engraved plates, beautifully illustrated colour-printed borders and book decoration throughout, and with musical scores to all the old rhymes, all designed by Walter Crane and wood-engraved and printed in colours by Edmund Evans. 56 pp.

[SW: English; Picture Books; Children's Books]

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<B>A. APPLE PIE</B>, and other Nursery Tales. London, New York, Frederick Warne and Co., Scribner, Welford and Armstrong, (ca. 1880).
Beautiful English picture book for the very young, with the four most popular English primers: "A. Apple Pie", an hilarious A B C book, "Nursery Rhymes", including "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son", "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary", "Humpty Dumpty", etc. "Nursery Songs", with "Hey, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle", "Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet", "Little Bo-peep has lost his (sic!) sheep", etc. and "Nursery Ditties", including "See-saw, Magery Daw", "Jack and Jill went up the hill", "Little Tom Tucker, Sing for your supper", etc. Each part is most vividly illustrated with six richly colour-printed full-page plates. The "A. Apple Pie" is here also illustrated with full-page plates rather than with the usual illustrations of the separate letters of the alphabet, but the text is all there, with "A was an Apple Pie, B. bit it, C cut it, D. danced for it, etc.", printed in short lines of large type on facing pages, that is on versos of the plates. The plates are not signed and the artist has remained anonymous. All primers present here belong to the most popular of English children's books, which appeared in print since the 1740's and are still popular today. The books were newly illustrated by all the great children's book artists, like Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, etc. The "A. Apple Pie" was also translated in Dutch in about 1860, the translation full of errors, but the plates very nicely illustrating each letter separately with four little scenes to one plate.
Good, but sl. used copy from Warne's "Now and Then" Juvenile Series.- (Binding sl. rubbed, first free endpaper removed; few stains; some browning).
Muir p. 77, et passim; cf. Osborne Coll. p. 89-90 (other single ed. of A. Apple Pie) and p. 673 (A. Apple Pie also with 6 full-page plates, but with another children's book added); Gumuchian 6037 (London-ed. of 1816 of "A. Apple Pie"); Die Bilderwelt 1001 ("A. Apple Pie", illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1886); Landwehr, <I>Prentgeschenk</I>, 1a (Dutch translation of "A. Apple Pie", ca. 1860).

Sm.4to. Orig. reddish brown cloth, spine titled in black, sides decoratively blind-stamped and stamped in black, with gilt title-label on front cover. With 24 full-page colour-printed wood-engraved plates, partly with text on verso and interleaved with blank lvs.

[SW: English; ABC Books; Illustrated Books; Children's Books]

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Walter,Crane: The Song of Sixpence Picture Book, TREDITION CLASSICS, Dezember 2011, Besorgungstitel - vorauss. Lieferzeit 3-5 Tage. ISBN: 3842486723
This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

NEUBUCH! 1/2011,96 S. 203 mm x 133 mm x 6 mm

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