Earliest Published Nursery Rhymes Book c.1744

Mary Cooper, whose two-volume Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744) is the first known nursery rhyme collection, featuring early versions of well-known classics like ‘Bah, bah, a black sheep’, ‘Hickory dickory dock’, ‘London Bridge is falling down’ and ‘Sing a song of sixpence’.

The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765) has a good claim to be called the first children’s novel. It tells the story of a poor orphan, Margery, who makes a career for herself as a teacher before, like a less glamorous Cinderella (with no fairy godmother, balls to attend, or glass slipper), she marries the local landowner whom she has impressed by her honesty, hard work and good sense.

Isn't this a much better story than Cinderella?

Click to enlarge the images found in a great article 

ORIGINS OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE 

in the archives of The British Library

Enjoy.

xo

A Few of The Books I Collect

I collect antiquarian books with fine leather bindings.

This set is my favorite with the sporting motif.

I love the red ones too.

Another favorite set. Now you know why I liked that bookshop window about book collecting.

xo

Peter Rabbit Book 1914 Story by Beatrix Potter Illustrated by Virginia Albert

I HAD NO IDEA BEATRIX POTTER BOOKS WERE EVER ILLUSTRATED BY ANYONE ELSE! This book was published in 1914 and we are so thankful it has been digitized by Project Gutenberg as an eBook. It appears to be a very large children's book. See every page and read the story. Most are full page color illustrations but some are black and white. READ HERE.

See a video of a bookseller holding and talking about Beatrix Potter's 1902 first edition HERE.

Have a great Sunday. 

XO

Tiny Hand-Written Book by 13 Year Old Charlotte Brontë 1829

Think tinier than a playing card. 

April 26, 2022: A tiny manuscript by then-teenage author Charlotte Brontë will be returned to the parsonage where she lived her entire life. Friends of the National Libraries (FNL), a British nonprofit, purchased the book, which contains Brontë’s only remaining unpublished poetry, for $1.25 million, and will donate it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England, per a museum release. The article says you need a magnifying glass in order to read her poems. Read the Smithsonian Magazine article here. 

Sold by James Cummins Bookseller, New York City at the Park Avenue Armory's 62nd Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF). I know him personally and have sold a few rare books to him and bought many from him in his NJ Shop. This is such an exciting find, isn't it?

The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen

A photo from one of my books illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert

Did everyone have a nice weekend?

I am refreshed and ready to tackle more work.

Prayers for Louisiana and Ida's wrath.

Residual coming my way Wednesday & Thursday.

Be safe. xo

My Bookshelves & One More Dahlia

It's hard to show you anything but dahlias so here is a detail of the bookshelves in my bedroom.

And ONE MORE dahlia, shot this morning in my front garden. Have a great weekend. xo

Hanging Out The Clothes

An illustration from one of my old picture books for children. I love the flowering trees used as clothesline posts. Notice the high brick wall to "hide" the laundry, especially the undergarments. Randolph Caldecott was the illustrator.

See all of my old posts about this illustrator and MANY more examples of his delightful artwork. I love each and every one and you will too. Enjoy. xo

Bookplate Etching: A Miniature Work of Art

I have blogged about this bookplate from a 1931 gardening book in the past, as well as on an Instagram post shown below. The small shell beside the bookplate shows its actual size. I have more than one book with this bookplate and the one I scanned above did not have the wrinkles in the left margin. I experimented with the scanner on my new printer over the weekend and the scan above shows all the detail in this bookplate. So many bookplates are miniature works of art that are worthy of being enlarged. The engraver was Banks B. Gordon. He was hired by the Etchcraft Company to engrave the steel or copper plate for printing a design that had already been drawn by an artist. I'm not sure whether he was an artist himself and could do custom work directly with the end user of the bookplate.

The book collector with more than one bookplate design to paste in her books was C. A. Maude Eden. See another one I have blogged about with a poem about her love of books, birds, and flowers. xo

Great Books Recently Purchased

I was out and about one day last week and I found the three red leather bound books with wonderful decoration on the spines to go with with set I already had in black. I love the sporting themes. They were in a very unlikely place in a resale shop that sells mostly clothes and accessories. I am thrilled with these antiquarian books to add to my collection.

I have been working furiously outside while the weather is still cool and enjoying everything about the hard work except for the ticks. I will soon be down to nothing but mowing with much less danger. I put up another bluebird box far away from the one near my house to hopefully attract another family with no competition from the nesting couple already in residence. 

See you later. xo

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1878 Bird Print: My Hawk & Blue Jays

A color lithograph with my Cooper's Hawk and Blue Jays.

STUDER'S BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA

Leather Binding with embossed gilt cover and a detached spine.

Title Page dated 1878

This book was rather a poor man's Audubon's Birds of America because the birds were not hand-colored but printed in color thanks to the invention of chromolithography.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

"Let Sleeping Dogs Lie"

Does this one count as an illustrated quote? I have four of these books with various dogs on them and a lamp as well and I always wondered how anyone could part with them. Have a great rest of the weekend and prepare for some snow if its coming your way. xo

Night-Time Reading: Moley in the Library

"It’s not the sort of night for bed, anyhow.“  

Kenneth Grahame 

Night-Time Reading: Moley in the Library, inspired by Kenneth Grahame’s ‘The Wind In The Willows" illustration by Chris Dunn. via

Interesting Antique Calligraphy

Superimposed Letters Spelling the Names of Illustrious Women of Ancient Rome: Faustina, Lucretia, Virginia, Vittoria, Giulia, Flaminia from Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta or The Model Book of Calligraphy (1561–1596) by Georg Bocskay and Joris Hoefnagel. 

Original from The Getty.

Bookplate with Borrowing Instructions

Neither blemish this book nor the leaves double down

Nor lend it to each idle friend in the town:

Return it when read -- or if lost, please supply

Another, as good to the mind and the eye.

With right and with reason you need but be friends

And each book in my study your pleasure attends.

I think these instructions from James Moore are very generous and polite, don't you? I found this photo on my computer, saved from long ago. I added the text below. It has always been my experience when I lent a book that I might as well have kissed it goodbye because I rarely got it back without asking for it. xo

Halloween Bat

I probably posted this last year but I love it so here it is again. I took the photo from my antiquarian book, The Royal Book of Crests, and added the text myself. Be safe tonight and don't eat too much candy. I am turning off the lights early and will be watching movies in bed. I voted today and placed my mail-in ballot in a designated drop box in front of a police station. I really wanted to vote in person but decided this way was safer and ever so much easier. Count Dracula would have loved this crest. xo

Picnic for Mice Arthur Rackham

You know I love animals wearing clothes and this artwork by Arthur Rackham from Wind in the Willows is no exception. Offered at auction by Sotheby's.

Orbweaving Spiders

Illustration from the Book: American Spiders and Their Spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Published in 1889 by Henry C. McCook (1837-1911).

Silly me. I thought all spiders wove these spiral wheel-shaped webs. Leave them alone because  these beneficial spiders catch and eat many pest-type insects. They are nature's insecticides and their webs are beautiful.

Bookplate: Birds Books Flowers

"No wealthy monarch can possess

 A greater store of golden hours

 Than can be found in happiness

 Of birds and books and flowers"

I bought a collection of antiquarian books years ago and this bookplate was in all the gardening books and this miniature book too. I love the sentiment, don't you?

BEST DOG BOOKENDS

Do want! I adore these two good boys 🐾🐾 holding up the old books. via

A seldom seen wall in my living room.

My antique bookcase with sliding glass doors in the living room is filled with my collection of antiquarian books with fine leather bindings. It is impossible to show the bottom two shelves going all the way down to the floor as the space is too tight without moving heavy furniture. The top is lined with my Georgian glass decanters and other suitable items for drinking if the decanters were ever filled. It's a pain to dust and when I do, I have to refer to a photo in order to get everything back in the proper place. Enjoy the last full week of May. xo