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Title: Children's Books and Their Illustrators
Author: White, Gleeson, 1851-1898
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Children's Books and Their Illustrators" ***
Price 50 Cents
_Special_ WINTER NUMBER _of_
THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIO
_CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND THEIR ILLUSTRATORS._
_By_ GLEESON WHITE
[Illustration]
THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIO =John Lane=, 140 Fifth Avenue, _New York_
Scribner's New Books for the Young
=Mrs. Burnett's
famous
Juveniles=
=With all the original
Illustrations by Reginald B. Birch.
5 vols. Each 12mo $1.25.=
A writer in the _Boston Post_ has said of Mrs. Burnett: "She has a
beauty of imagination and a spiritual insight into the meditations of
childhood which are within the grasp of no other writer for
children,"--and these five volumes would indeed be difficult to match in
child literature. The new edition is from new plates, with all the
original illustrations by Reginald B. Birch, is bound in a handsome new
cover. "Little Lord Fauntleroy," "Two Little Pilgrims' Progress,"
"Piccino and Other Child Stories," "Giovanni and the Other," "Sara
Crewe," and "Little Saint Elizabeth and other Stories" (in one volume).
=Three New
Volumes by
G. A. Henty=
=Illustrated by Walter
Paget and W. A. Margetson.
Each 12mo $1.50=.
It would be a bitter year for the boys if Mr. Henty were to fail them
with a fresh assortment of his enthralling tales of adventure, for, as
the London _Academy_ has said, in this kind of story telling, "he stands
in the very first rank." "With Frederick the Great" is a tale of the
Seven Years' War, and has twelve full-page illustrations by Wal. Paget;
"A March on London" details some stirring scenes of the times when Wat
Tyler's motley crew took possession of that city, and the illustrations
are drawn by W. A. Margetson, while Wal. Paget has supplied the pictures
for "With Moore at Corunna," in which the boy hero serves through the
Peninsular War. (Each 12mo, $1.50.)
=Will Shakespeare's
Little Lad
by Imogen Clarke=
=With 8 full-page Illustrations
by Reginald B. Birch.
12mo $1.50.=
"The author has caught the true spirit of Shakespeare's time, and paints
his home surroundings with a loving, tender grace," says the Boston
_Herald_.
=An Old-Field School Girl by Marion Harland=
(Illustrated, 12mo, $1.25.) "As pretty a story for girls as has been
published in a long time," says the _Buffalo Express_, and the _Chicago
Tribune_ is even more appreciative: "Compared with the average books of
its class 'An Old-Field School Girl,' becomes a classic."
=Lullaby Land=
=Verses by Eugene Field
With 200 fanciful
Illustrations by Charles Robinson.
(Uniform with Stevenson's
"A Child's Garden") 12mo $1.50.=
"A collection of those dearly loved 'Songs of Childhood' by Eugene
Field, which have touched many hearts, both old and young, and will
continue to do so as long as little children remain the joy of our
homes. It was a happy thought of the publisher to choose another such
child lover and sympathizer as Kenneth Grahame to write the Preface to
the new edition, and Charles Robinson to make the many quaint and most
amusing illustrations."--_The Evangelist._
=With Crockett
and Bowie by
Kirk Munroe=
=With 8 full-page
Illustrations by Victor S. Perard.
12mo $1.50.=
This "Tale of Texas; or, Fighting for the Lone Star Flag," completes the
author's _White Conqueror Series_. The Minneapolis _Tribune_ says: "It
is a breezy and invigorating tale. The characters, although drawn from
real life, are surrounded by an atmosphere of romance and adventure
which gives them the added fascination of being creatures of fiction,
and yet there is no straining for effect."
=The Naval
Cadet=
=With 6 full-page Illustrations
by William Rainey, R. I.
Crown 8vo $1.25.=
A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea, by GORDON STABLES. A stirring tale
of seafaring and sea-fighting on the coasts of Africa, South America,
Australia, New Guinea, etc., closing with a dramatic picture of the
combat between the Chinese and Japanese fleets at Yalu.
=The Stevenson
Song Book=
=With decorative borders.
4to $2.00.=
In this large and handsome quarto, twenty of the most lyrical poems from
Robert Louis Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verse", have been set to
music by such composers as Reginald DeKoven, Arthur Foote, C. W.
Chadwick, Dr. C. Villers Stanford, etc. The volume is uniform with and a
fitting companion to the popular "Field-De-Koven Song Book."
=Twelve Naval
Captains by
Molly Elliot Seawell=
=With 12 full-page portraits.
12mo $1.25.=
Miss Seawell here tells the notable exploits of twelve heroes of our
early navy: John Paul Jones, Richard Dale, William Bainbridge, Richard
Somers, Edward Preble, Thomas Truxton, Stephen Decatur, James Lawrance,
Isaac Hull, O. H. Perry, Charles Stewart, Thomas Macdonough. The book is
illustrated attractively and makes a stirring and thrilling volume.
=The Knights
of the Round
Table=
=With 25 Illustrations
by S. R. Benliegh.
12mo $1.50.=
"King Arthur's Knights and their connection with the mystic Grail is
here the subject of Mr. William Henry Frost's translation into child
language. Many volumes have been prepared telling these wonderful
legendary stories to young people, but few are so admirably written as
this work," says the _Boston Advertiser_.
=The Last
Cruise of the
Mohawk by
W. J. Henderson=
=Illustrated by
Harry C. Edwards.
12mo $1.25.=
The _Observer_ says: "This is an exciting story that boys of today will
appreciate thoroughly and devour greedily," and the _Rochester Democrat_
calls it "an interesting and thrilling story."
=The King of
the Broncos
by Charles
F. Lummis=
=Illustrated by
Victor S. Perard.
12mo $1.25.=
The title story and the other Tales of New Mexico, which Mr. Lummis has
here supplied for the younger generation, have all his usual
fascination. He knows how to tell his thrilling stories in a way that is
irresistible? to boy readers.
=The Border
Wars of
New England=
=With 58 Illustrations and map.
12mo $1.25.=
Mr. Samuel Adams Drake is an expert at making history real and vital to
children. The _Boston Advertiser_ says: "This is not a school book, yet
it is exceedingly well adapted to use in schools, and at the same time
will enrich and adorn the library of every American who is so fortunate
or so judicious as to place it on his shelves."
=The Golden
Galleon by
Robert
Leighton=
=With 8 full-page Illustrations
by William Rainey, R. I.
12mo $1.50.=
"A narrative of the adventures of Master Gilbert O'Glander, and of how
in the year 1591 he fought under the gallant Sir Richard Grenville in
the great sea-fight off Flores, on board Her Majesty's ship, _The
Revenge_." The New York _Observer_ has said: "Mr. Leighton as a writer
for boys needs no praise as his books place him in the front rank."
=Lords of the
World=
=With 12 full-page
Illustrations by Ralph Peacock.
12mo. $1.00.=
A Story of the Fall of Carthage and Corinth. By ALFRED J. CHURCH. In his
own special field the author has few rivals. He has a capacity for
making antiquity assume reality which is fascinating in the extreme.
=Adventures in
Toyland=
=With 8 colored plates and 72 other
Illustrations by Alice B. Woodward.
Square 8vo. $2.00.=
By EDITH KING HALL. A clever and fascinating volume which will surely
take a high place among this season's "juveniles."
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 153-157 Fifth Ave, N.Y.
[Illustration: "THE HEIR TO FAIRY-LAND" FROM A WATER-COLOUR BY ROBERT
HALLS]
THE INTERNATIONAL
STUDIO
SPECIAL WINTER-NUMBER 1897-8
CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND THEIR ILLUSTRATORS. BY GLEESON WHITE.
[Illustration: THE "MONKEY-BOOK" A FAVOURITE IN THE NURSERY
(_By permission of James H. Stone, Esq., J.P._)]
There are some themes that by their very wealth of suggestion appal the
most ready writer. The emotions which they arouse, the mass of pleasant
anecdote they recall, the ghosts of far-off delights they summon, are
either too obvious to be worth the trouble of description or too
evanescent to be expressed in dull prose. Swift, we are told (perhaps a
little too frequently), could write beautifully of a broomstick; which
may strike a common person as a marvel of dexterity. After a while, the
journalist is apt to find that it is the perfect theme which proves to
be the hardest to treat adequately. Clothe a broomstick with fancies,
even of the flimsiest tissue paper, and you get something more or less
like a fairy-king's sceptre; but take the Pompadour's fan, or the
haunting effect of twilight over the meadows, and all you can do in
words seems but to hide its original beauties. We know that Mr. Austin
Dobson was able to add graceful wreaths even to the fan of the
Pompadour, and that another writer is able to impart to the misty
twilight not only the eerie fantasies it shows the careless observer,
but also a host of others that only a poet feels, and that only a poet
knows how to prison within his cage of printed syllables. Indeed, of the
theme of the present discourse has not the wonder-working Robert Louis
Stevenson sung of "Picture Books in Winter" and "The Land of Story
Books," so truly and clearly that it is dangerous for lesser folk to
attempt essays in their praise? All that artists have done to amuse the
august monarch "King Baby" (who, pictured by Mr. Robert Halls, is fitly
enthroned here by way of frontispiece) during the playtime of his
immaturity is too big a subject for our space, and can but be indicated
in rough outline here.
[Illustration: "ROBINSON CRUSOE." THE WRECK FROM AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
CHAP-BOOK]
Luckily, a serious study of the evolution of the child's book already
exists. Since the bulk of this number was in type, I lighted by chance
upon "The Child and his Book," by Mrs. E. M. Field, a most admirable
volume which traces its subject from times before the Norman conquest to
this century. Therein we find full accounts of MSS. designed for
teaching purposes, of early printed manuals, and of the mass of
literature intended to impress "the Fear of the Lord and of the
Broomstick." Did space allow, the present chronicle might be enlivened
with many an excerpt which she has culled from out-of-the-way sources.
But the temptation to quote must be controlled. It is only fair to add
that in that work there is a very excellent chapter to "Some
Illustrators of Children's Books," although its main purpose is the text
of the books. One branch has found its specialist and its exhaustive
monograph, in Mr. Andrew Tuer's sumptuous volumes devoted to "The Horn
Book."
[Illustration: "CRUSOE AND XURY ESCAPING" FROM AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
CHAP-BOOK]
Perhaps there is no pleasure the modern "grown-up" person envies the
youngsters of the hour as he envies them the shoals of delightful books
which publishers prepare for the Christmas tables of lucky children. If
he be old enough to remember Mrs. Trimmer's "History of the Robins,"
"The Fairchild Family," or that Poly-technically inspired romance, the
"Swiss Family Robinson," he feels that a certain half-hearted approval
of more dreary volumes is possibly due to the glamour which middle age
casts upon the past. It is said that even Barbauld's "Evenings at Home"
and "Sandford and Merton" (the anecdotes only, I imagine) have been
found toothsome dainties by unjaded youthful appetites; but when he
compares these with the books of the last twenty years, he wishes he
could become a child again to enjoy their sweets to the full.
[Illustration: _"CRUSOE SETS SAIL ON HIS EVENTFUL VOYAGE" FROM AN
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHAP-BOOK_]
Now nine-tenths of this improvement is due to artist and publisher;
although it is obvious that illustrations imply something to illustrate,
and, as a rule (not by any means without exception), the better the text
the better the pictures. Years before good picture-books there were good
stories, and these, whether they be the classics of the nursery, the
laureates of its rhyme, the unknown author of its sagas, the born
story-tellers--whether they date from prehistoric cave-dwellers, or are
of our own age, like Charles Kingsley or Lewis Carroll--supply the text
to spur on the artist to his best achievements.
[Illustration: "THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD." FROM AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
CHAP-BOOK]
It is mainly a labour of love to infuse pictures intended for childish
eyes with qualities that pertain to art. We like to believe that Walter
Crane, Caldecott, Kate Greenaway and the rest receive ample appreciation
from the small people. That they do in some cases is certain; but it is
also quite as evident that the veriest daub, if its subject be
attractive, is enjoyed no less thoroughly. There are prigs of course,
the children of the "prignorant," who babble of Botticelli, and profess
to disdain any picture not conceived with "high art" mannerism. Yet even
these will forget their pretence, and roar over a _Comic Cuts_ found on
the seat of a railway carriage, or stand delighted before some
unspeakable poster of a melodrama. It is well to face the plain fact
that the most popular illustrated books which please the children are
not always those which satisfy the critical adult. As a rule it is the
"grown-ups" who buy; therefore with no wish to be-little the advance in
nursery taste, one must own that at present its improvement is chiefly
owing to the active energies of those who give, and is only passively
tolerated by those who accept. Children awaking to the marvel that
recreates a familiar object by a few lines and blotches on a piece of
paper, are not unduly exigent. Their own primitive diagrams, like a
badly drawn Euclidean problem, satisfy their idea of studies from the
life. Their schemes of colour are limited to harmonies in crimson lake,
cobalt and gamboge, their skies are very blue, their grass arsenically
green, and their perspective as erratic as that of the Chinese.
[Illustration: "TWO CHILDREN IN THE WOOD." FROM AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
CHAP-BOOK]
[Illustration: "SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON." FROM AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
CHAP-BOOK]
In fact, unpopular though it may be to project such a theory, one
fancies that the real educational power of the picture-book is upon the
elders, and thus, that it undoubtedly helps to raise the standard of
domestic taste in art. But, on the other hand, whether his art is
adequately appreciated or not, what an unprejudiced and wholly
spontaneous acclaim awaits the artist who gives his best to the little
ones! They do not place his work in portfolios or locked glass cases;
they thumb it to death, surely the happiest of all fates for any printed
book. To see his volumes worn out by too eager votaries; what could an
author or artist wish for more? The extraordinary devotion to a volume
of natural history, which after generations of use has become more like
a mop-head than a book, may be seen in the reproduction of a
"monkey-book" here illustrated; this curious result being caused by
sheer affectionate thumbing of its leaves, until the dog-ears and
rumpled pages turned the cube to a globular mass, since flattened by
being packed away. So children love picture-books, not as bibliophiles
would consider wisely, but too well.
[Illustration: "AN AMERICAN MAN AND WOMAN IN THEIR PROPER HABITS."
ILLUSTRATION FROM "A MUSEUM FOR YOUNG GENTLEMEN AND LADIES" (S. CROWDER.
1790)]
To delight one of the least of these, to add a new joy to the crowded
miracles of childhood, were no less worth doing than to leave a Sistine
Chapel to astound a somewhat bored procession of tourists, or to have
written a classic that sells by thousands and is possessed unread by all
save an infinitesimal percentage of its owners.
When Randolph Caldecott died, a minor poet, unconsciously paraphrasing
Garrick's epitaph, wrote: "For loss of him the laughter of the children
will grow less." I quote the line from memory, perhaps incorrectly; if
so, its author will, I feel sure, forgive the unintentional mangling.
Did the laughter of the children grow less? Happily one can be quite
sure it did not. So long as any inept draughtsman can scrawl a few lines
which they accept as a symbol of an engine, an elephant or a pussy cat,
so long will the great army of invaders who are our predestined
conquerors be content to laugh anew at the request of any one, be he
good or mediocre, who caters for them.
It is a pleasant and yet a saddening thought to remember that we were
once recruits of this omnipotent army that wins always our lands and our
treasures. Now, when grown up, whether we are millionaires or paupers,
they have taken fortress by fortress with the treasures therein, our
picture-books of one sort are theirs, and one must yield presently to
the babies as they grow up, even our criticism, for they will make their
own standards of worth and unworthiness despite all our efforts to
control their verdict.
If we are conscious of being "up-to-date" in 1900, we may be quite sure
that by 1925 we shall be ousted by a newer generation, and by 2000
forgotten. Long before even that, the children we now try to amuse or to
educate, to defend at all costs, or to pray for as we never prayed
before--they will be the masters. It is, then, not an ignoble thing to
do one's very best to give our coming rulers a taste of the kingdom of
art, to let them unconsciously discover that there is something outside
common facts, intangible and not to be reduced to any rule, which may be
a lasting pleasure to those who care to study it.
It is evident, as one glances back over the centuries, that the child
occupies a new place in the world to-day. Excepting possibly certain
royal infants, we do not find that great artists of the past addressed
themselves to children. Are there any children's books illustrated by
Dürer, Burgmair, Altdorfer, Jost Amman, or the little masters of
Germany? Among the Florentine woodcuts do we find any designed for
children? Did Rembrandt etch for them, or Jacob Beham prepare plates for
their amusement? So far as I have searched, no single instance has
rewarded me. It is true that the _naïveté_ of much early work tempts
one to believe that it was designed for babies. But the context shows
that it was the unlettered adult, not the juvenile, who was addressed.
As the designs, obviously prepared for children, begin to appear, they
are almost entirely educational and by no means the work of the best
artists of the period. Even when they come to be numerous, their object
is seldom to amuse; they are didactic, and as a rule convey solemn
warnings. The idea of a draughtsman of note setting himself deliberately
to please a child would have been inconceivable not so many years ago.
To be seen and not heard was the utmost demanded of the little ones even
as late as the beginning of this century, when illustrated books
designed especially for their instruction were not infrequent.
[Illustration: "THE WALLS OF BABYLON." ILLUSTRATION FROM "A MUSEUM FOR
YOUNG GENTLEMEN AND LADIES" (S. CROWDER. 1790)]
As Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton pointed out in his charming essay, "The New
Hero," which appeared in the _English Illustrated Magazine_ (Dec. 1883),
the child was neglected even by the art of literature until Shakespeare
furnished portraits at once vivid, engaging, and true in Arthur and in
Mamillus. In the same essay he goes on to say of the child--the new
hero:
"And in art, painters and designers are vying with the poets and with
each other in accommodating their work to his well-known matter-of-fact
tastes and love of simple directness. Having discovered that the New
Hero's ideal of pictorial representation is of that high dramatic and
businesslike kind exemplified in the Bayeux tapestry, Mr. Caldecott, Mr.
Walter Crane, Miss Kate Greenaway, Miss Dorothy Tennant, have each tried
to surpass the other in appealing to the New Hero's love of real
business in art--treating him, indeed, as though he were Hoteï, the
Japanese god of enjoyment--giving him as much colour, as much dramatic
action, and as little perspective as is possible to man's finite
capacity in this line. Some generous art critics have even gone so far
indeed as to credit an entire artistic movement, that of pre-Raphaelism,
with a benevolent desire to accommodate art to the New Hero's peculiar
ideas upon perspective. But this is a 'soft impeachment' born of that
loving kindness for which art-critics have always been famous."
[Illustration: "MERCURY AND THE WOODMAN." ILLUSTRATION FROM "BEWICK'S
SELECT FABLES." BY THOMAS BEWICK (1784)]
[Illustration: "THE BROTHER AND SISTER." ILLUSTRATION FROM "BEWICK'S
SELECT FABLES." BY THOMAS BEWICK (1784)]
[Illustration: "LITTLE ANTHONY." ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE LOOKING-GLASS OF
THE MIND." BY THOMAS BEWICK (1792)]
[Illustration: "LITTLE ADOLPHUS." ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE LOOKING-GLASS
OF THE MIND." BY THOMAS BEWICK (1792)]
It would be out of place here to project any theory to account for this
more recent homage paid to children, but it is quite certain that a
similar number of THE STUDIO could scarce have been compiled a century
ago, for there was practically no material for it. In fact the tastes of
children as a factor to be considered in life are well-nigh as modern as
steam or the electric light, and far less ancient than printing with
movable types, which of itself seems the second great event in the
history of humanity, the use of fire being the first.
To leave generalities and come to particulars, as we dip into the stores
of earlier centuries the broadsheets reveal almost nothing _intended_
for children--the many Robin Hood ballads, for example, are decidedly
meant for grown-up people; and so in the eighteenth century we find its
chap-books of "Guy, Earl of Warwick," "Sir Bevis, of Southampton,"
"Valentine and Orson," are still addressed to the adult; while it is
more than doubtful whether even the earliest editions in chap-book form
of "Tom Thumb," and "Whittington" and the rest, now the property of the
nursery, were really published for little ones. That they were the
"light reading" of adults, the equivalent of to-day's _Ally Sloper_ or
the penny dreadful, is much more probable. No doubt children who came
across them had a surreptitious treat, even as urchins of both sexes now
pounce with avidity upon stray copies of the ultra-popular and so-called
comic papers. But you could not call _Ally Sloper_, that Punchinello of
the Victorian era--who has received the honour of an elaborate article
in the _Nineteenth Century_--a child's hero, nor is his humour of a sort
always that childhood should understand--"Unsweetened Gin," the
"Broker's Man," and similar subjects, for example. It is quite possible
that respectable people did not care for their babies to read the
chap-books of the eighteenth century any more than they like them now to
study "halfpenny comics"; and that they were, in short, kitchen
literature, and not infantile. Even if the intellectual standard of
those days was on a par in both domains, it does not prove that the
reading of the kitchen and nursery was interchangeable.
Before noticing any pictures in detail from old sources or new, it is
well to explain that as a rule only those showing some attempt to adapt
the drawing to a child's taste have been selected. Mere dull transcripts
of facts please children no less; but here space forbids their
inclusion. Otherwise nearly all modern illustration would come into our
scope.
A search through the famous Roxburghe collection of broadsheets
discovered nothing that could be fairly regarded as a child's
publication. The chap-books of the eighteenth century have been
adequately discussed in Mr. John Ashton's admirable monograph, and from
them a few "cuts" are here reproduced. Of course, if one takes the
standard of education of these days as the test, many of those curious
publications would appear to be addressed to intelligence of the most
juvenile sort. Yet the themes as a rule show unmistakably that children
of a larger growth were catered for, as, for instance, "Joseph and his
Brethren," "The Holy Disciple," "The Wandering Jew," and those earlier
pamphlets which are reprints or new versions of books printed by Wynkyn
de Worde, Pynson, and others of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries.
[Illustration: _Henry quitting School._
ILLUSTRATION FROM "SKETCHES OF JUVENILE CHARACTERS" (E. WALLIS. 1818)]
In one, "The Witch of the Woodlands," appears a picture of little people
dancing in a fairy ring, which might be supposed at first sight to be an
illustration of a nursery tale, but the text describing a Witch's
Sabbath, rapidly dispels the idea. Nor does a version of the popular
Faust legend--"Dr. John Faustus"--appear to be edifying for young
people. This and "Friar Bacon" are of the class which lingered the
longest--the magical and oracular literature. Even to-day it is quite
possible that dream-books and prophetical pamphlets enjoy a large sale;
but a few years ago many were to be found in the catalogues of
publishers who catered for the million. It is not very long ago that the
Company of Stationers omitted hieroglyphics of coming events from its
almanacs. Many fairy stories which to-day are repeated for the amusement
of children were regarded as part of this literature--the traditional
folk-lore which often enough survives many changes of the religious
faith of a nation, and outlasts much civilisation. Others were
originally political satires, or social pasquinades; indeed not a few
nursery rhymes mask allusions to important historical incidents. The
chap-book form of publication is well adapted for the preservation of
half-discredited beliefs, of charms and prophecies, incantations and
cures.
In "Valentine and Orson," of which a fragment is extant of a version
printed by Wynkyn de Worde, we have unquestionably the real fairy story.
This class of story, however, was not addressed directly to children
until within the last hundred years. That many of the cuts used in these
chap-books afterwards found their way into little coarsely printed
duodecimos of eight or sixteen pages designed for children is no doubt a
fact. Indeed the wanderings of these blocks, and the various uses to
which they were applied, is far too vast a theme to touch upon here. For
this peripatetic habit of old wood-cuts was not even confined to the
land of their production; after doing duty in one country, they were
ready for fresh service in another. Often in the chap-books we meet with
the same block as an illustration of totally different scenes.
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF "THE PATHS OF LEARNING" (HARRIS AND SON.
1820)]
[Illustration: PAGE FROM "THE PATHS OF LEARNING" (HARRIS AND SON. 1820)]
The cut for the title-page of Robin Hood is a fair example of its kind.
The Norfolk gentleman's "Last Will and Testament" turns out to be a
rambling rhymed version of the Two Children in the Wood. In the first of
its illustrations we see the dying parents commending their babes to the
cruel world. The next is a subject taken from these lines:
"Away then went these prity babes rejoycing at that tide,
Rejoycing with a merry mind they should on cock-horse ride."
And in the last, here reproduced, we see them when
"Their prity lips with blackberries were all besmeared and dyed,
And when they saw the darksome night, they sat them down and cried."
But here it is more probable that it was the tragedy which attracted
readers, as the _Police News_ attracts to-day, and that it became a
child's favourite by the accident of the robins burying the babes.
The example from the "History of Sir Richard Whittington" needs no
comment.
A very condensed version of "Robinson Crusoe" has blocks of distinct, if
archaic, interest. The three here given show a certain sense of
decorative treatment (probably the result of the artist's inability to
be realistic), which is distinctly amusing. One might select hundreds of
woodcuts of this type, but those here reproduced will serve as well as a
thousand to indicate their general style.
Some few of these books have contributed to later nursery folk-lore, as,
for example, the well known "Jack Horner," which is an extract from a
coarse account of the adventures of a dwarf.
One quality that is shared by all these earlier pictures is their
artlessness and often their absolute ugliness. Quaint is the highest
adjective that fits them. In books of the later period not a few blocks
of earlier date and of really fine design reappear; but in the
chap-books quite 'prentice hands would seem to have been employed, and
the result therefore is only interesting for its age and rarity. So far
these pictures need no comment, they foreshadow nothing and are derived
from nothing, so far as their design is concerned. Such interest as they
have is quite unconcerned with art in any way; they are not even
sufficiently misdirected to act as warnings, but are merely clumsy.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "GERMAN POPULAR STORIES." BY G.
CRUIKSHANK (CHARLES TILT. 1824)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "GERMAN POPULAR STORIES." BY G.
CRUIKSHANK (CHARLES TILT. 1824)]
Children's books, as every collector knows, are among the most
short-lived of all volumes. This is more especially true of those with
illustrations, for their extra attractiveness serves but to degrade a
comely book into a dog-eared and untidy thing, with leaves sere and
yellow, and with no autumnal grace to mellow their decay. Long before
this period, however, the nursery artist has marked them for his own,
and with crimson lake and Prussian blue stained their pictures in all
too permanent pigments, that in some cases resist every chemical the
amateur applies with the vain hope of effacing the superfluous colour.
Of course the disappearance of the vast majority of books for children
(dating from 1760 to 1830, and even later) is no loss to art, although
among them are some few which are interesting as the 'prentice work of
illustrators who became famous. But these are the exceptions. Thanks to
the kindness of Mr. James Stone, of Birmingham, who has a large and most
interesting collection of the most ephemeral of all sorts--the little
penny and twopenny pamphlets--it has been possible to refer at first
hand to hundreds, of them. Yet, despite their interest as curiosities,
their art need not detain us here. The pictures are mostly trivial or
dull, and look like the products of very poorly equipped draughtsmen and
cheap engravers. Some, in pamphlet shape, contain nursery rhymes and
little stories, others are devoted to the alphabet and arithmetic.
Amongst them are many printed on card, shaped like the cover of a
bank-book. These were called battledores, but as Mr. Tuer has dealt with
this class in "The Horn Book" so thoroughly, it would be mere waste of
time to discuss them here.
Mr. Elkin Mathews also permitted me to run through his interesting
collection, and among them were many noted elsewhere in these pages, but
the rest, so far as the pictures are concerned, do not call for detailed
notice. They do, indeed, contain pictures of children--but mere
"factual" scenes, as a rule--without any real fun or real imagination.
Those who wish to look up early examples will find a large and
entertaining variety among "The Pearson Collection" in the National Art
Library at South Kensington Museum.
Turning to quite another class, we find "A Museum for Young Gentlemen
and Ladies" (Collins: Salisbury), a typical volume of its kind. Its
preface begins: "I am very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of
fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasure and diversions.... The
greater part of our British youth lose their figure and grow out of
fashion by the time they are twenty-five. As soon as the natural gaiety
and amiableness of the young man wears off they have nothing left to
recommend, but _lie by_ the rest of their lives among the lumber and
refuse of their species"--a promising start for a moral lecture, which
goes on to implore those who are in the flower of their youth to "labour
at those accomplishments which may set off their persons when their
bloom is gone."
The compensations for old age appear to be, according to this author, a
little knowledge of grammar, history, astronomy, geography, weights and
measures, the seven wonders of the world, burning mountains, and dying
words of great men. But its delightful text must not detain us here. A
series of "cuts" of national costumes with which it is embellished
deserves to be described in detail. _An American Man and Woman in their
proper habits_, reproduced on page 6, will give a better idea of their
style than any words. The blocks evidently date many years earlier than
the thirteenth edition here referred to, which is about 1790. Indeed,
those of the Seven Wonders are distinctly interesting.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE LITTLE PRINCESS." BY J. C.
HORSLEY, R.A. (JOSEPH CUNDALL. 1843)]
[Illustration:
I had a little Nut-tree,
Nothing would it bear,
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear.
The King of Spain's daughter, came to visit me,--
And all because of my little Nut-tree.
ILLUSTRATION FROM "CHILD'S PLAY." BY E. V. B. (NOW PUBLISHED BY SAMPSON
LOW)]
Here and there we meet with one interesting as art. "An Ancestral
History of King Arthur" (H. Roberts, Blue Boar, Holborn, 1782), shown in
the Pearson collection at South Kensington, has an admirable
frontispiece; and one or two others would be worth reproduction did
space permit.
Although the dates overlap, the next division of the subject may be
taken as ranging from the publication of "Goody Two Shoes--otherwise
called Mrs. Margaret Two-shoes"--to the "Bewick Books." Of the latter
the most interesting is unquestionably "A Pretty Book of Pictures for
Little Masters and Misses, or Tommy Trip's History of Beasts and Birds,"
with a familiar description of each in verse and prose, to which is
prefixed "A History of Little Tom Trip himself, of his dog Towler, and
of Coryleg the great giant," written for John Newbery, the philanthropic
bookseller of St. Paul's Churchyard. "The fifteenth edition embellished
with charming engravings upon wood, from the original blocks engraved by
Thomas Bewick for T. Saint of Newcastle in 1779"--to quote the full
title from the edition reprinted by Edwin Pearson in 1867. This edition
contains a preface tracing the history of the blocks, which are said to
be Bewick's first efforts to depict beasts and birds, undertaken at the
request of the New castle printer, to illustrate a new edition of
"Tommy Trip." As at this time copyright was unknown, and Newcastle or
Glasgow pirated a London success (as New York did but lately), we must
not be surprised to find that the text is said to be a reprint of a
"Newbery" publication. But as Saint was called the Newbery of the North,
possibly the Bewick edition was authorised. One or two of the rhymes
which have been attributed to Oliver Goldsmith deserve quotation.
Appended to a cut of _The Bison_ we find the following delightful lines:
"The Bison, tho' neither
Engaging nor young,
Like a flatt'rer can lick you
To death with his tongue."
The astounding legend of the bison's long tongue, with which he captures
a man who has ventured too close, is dilated upon in the accompanying
prose. That Goldsmith used "teeth" when he meant "tusks" solely for the
sake of rhyme is a depressing fact made clear by the next verse:
"The elephant with trunk and teeth
Threatens his foe with instant death,
And should these not his ends avail
His crushing feet will seldom fail."
Nor are the rhymes as they stand peculiarly happy; certainly in the
following example it requires an effort to make "throw" and "now" pair
off harmoniously.
"The fierce, fell tiger will, they say,
Seize any man that's in the way,
And o'er his back the victim throw,
As you your satchel may do now."
Yet one more deserves to be remembered if but for its decorative
spelling:
"The cuccoo comes to chear the spring,
And early every morn does sing;
The nightingale, secure and snug,
The evening charms with Jug, jug, jug."
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE HONEY STEW" BY HARRISON WEIR
(JEREMIAH HOW. 1846)]
But these doggerel rhymes are not quite representative of the book, as
the well-known "Three children sliding on the ice upon a summer's day"
appears herein. The "cuts" are distinctively notable, especially the
Crocodile (which contradicts the letterpress, that says "it turns about
with difficulty"), the Chameleon, the Bison, and the Tiger.
Bewick's "Select Fables of Æsop and others" (Newcastle: T. Saint, 1784)
deserves fuller notice, but Æsop, though a not unpopular book for
children, is hardly a children's book. With "The Looking Glass for the
Mind" (1792) we have the adaptation of a popular French work, "L'Ami des
Enfans" (1749), with cuts by Bewick, which, if not equal to his best,
are more interesting from our point of view, as they are obviously
designed for young people. The letterpress is full of "useful lessons
for my youthful readers," with morals provokingly insisted upon.
"Goody Two Shoes" was also published by Newbery of St. Paul's
Churchyard--the pioneer of children's literature. His business--which
afterwards became Messrs. Griffith and Farran--has been the subject of
several monographs and magazine articles by Mr. Charles Welsh, a former
partner of that firm. The two monographs were privately printed for
issue to members of the Sette of Odde Volumes. The first of these is
entitled "On some Books for Children of the last century, with a few
words on the philanthropic publisher of St. Paul's Churchyard. A paper
read at a meeting of the Sette of Odde Volumes, Friday, January 8,
1886." Herein we find a very sympathetic account of John Newbery and
gossip of the clever and distinguished men who assisted him in the
production of children's books, of which Charles Knight said, "There is
nothing more remarkable in them than their originality. There have been
attempts to imitate its simplicity, its homeliness; great authors have
tried their hands at imitating its clever adaptation to the youthful
intellect, but they have failed"--a verdict which, if true of authors
when Charles Knight uttered it, is hardly true of the present time.
After Goldsmith, Charles Lamb, to whom "Goody Two Shoes" is now
attributed, was, perhaps, the most famous contributor to Newbery's
publications; his "Beauty and the Beast" and "Prince Dorus" have been
republished in facsimile lately by Messrs. Field and Tuer. From the
_London Chronicle_, December 19 to January 1, 1765, Mr. Welsh reprinted
the following advertisement:
[Illustration: "BLUE BEARD." ILLUSTRATION FROM "COMIC NURSERY TALES." BY
A. CROWQUILL (G. ROUTLEDGE. 1845)]
[Illustration: "ROBINSON CRUSOE." ILLUSTRATION FROM "COMIC NURSERY
TALES." BY A. CROWQUILL (G. ROUTLEDGE. 1845)]
"The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every
faculty are desired to observe that on January 1, being New Year's Day
(oh that we may all lead new lives!), Mr. Newbery intends to publish the
following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby invites all his
little friends who are good to call for them at the Bible and Sun in St.
Paul's Churchyard, but those who are naughty to have none." The paper
read by Mr. Welsh scarcely fulfils the whole promise of its title, for
in place of giving anecdotes of Newbery he refers his listeners to his
own volume, "A Bookseller of the Last Century," for fuller details; but
what he said in praise of the excellent printing and binding of
Newbery's books is well merited. They are, nearly all, comely
productions, some with really artistic illustrations, and all marked
with care and intelligence which had not hitherto been bestowed on
publications intended for juveniles. It is true that most are
distinguished for "calculating morality" as the _Athenæum_ called it, in
re-estimating their merits nearly a century later. It was a period when
the advantages of dull moralising were over-prized, when people
professed to believe that you could admonish children to a state of
perfection which, in their didactic addresses to the small folk, they
professed to obey themselves. It was, not to put too fine a point on it,
an age of solemn hypocrisy, not perhaps so insincere in intention as in
phrase; but, all the same, it repels the more tolerant mood of to-day.
Whether or not it be wise to confess to the same frailties and let
children know the weaknesses of their elders, it is certainly more
honest; and the danger is now rather lest the undue humility of
experience should lead children to believe that they are better than
their fathers. Probably the honest sympathy now shown to childish ideals
is not likely to be misinterpreted, for children are often shrewd
judges, and can detect the false from the true, in morals if not in art.
By 1800 literature for children had become an established fact. Large
numbers of publications were ostentatiously addressed to their
amusement; but nearly all hid a bitter if wholesome powder in a very
small portion of jam. Books of educational purport, like "A Father's
Legacy to his Daughter," with reprints of classics that are heavily
weighted with morals--Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas" and "Æsop's Fables," for
instance--are in the majority. "Robinson Crusoe" is indeed among them,
and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," both, be it noted, books annexed by
the young, not designed for them.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE." BY CHARLES KEENE
(JAMES BURNS. 1847)]
The titles of a few odd books which possess more than usually
interesting features may be jotted down. Of these, "Little Thumb and the
Ogre" (R. Dutton, 1788), with illustrations by William Blake, is easily
first in interest, if not in other respects. Others include "The Cries
of London" (1775), "Sindbad the Sailor" (Newbery, 1798), "Valentine and
Orson" (Mary Rhynd, Clerkenwell, 1804), "Fun at the Fair" (with spirited
cuts printed in red), and Watts's "Divine and Moral Songs," and "An
Abridged New Testament," with still more effective designs also in red
(Lumsden, Glasgow), "Gulliver's Travels" (greatly abridged, 1815),
"Mother Gum" (1805), "Anecdotes of a Little Family" (1795), "Mirth
without Mischief," "King Pippin," "The Daisy" (cautionary stories in
verse), and the "Cowslip," its companion (with delightfully prim little
rhymes that have been reprinted lately). The thirty illustrations in
each are by Samuel Williams, an artist who yet awaits his due
appreciation. A large number of classics of their kind, "The Adventures
of Philip Quarll," "Gulliver's Travels," Blake's "Songs of Innocence,"
Charles Lamb's "Stories from Shakespeare," Mrs. Sherwood's "Henry and
his Bearer," and a host of other religious stories, cannot even be
enumerated. But even were it possible to compile a full list of
children's books, it would be of little service, for the popular books
are in no danger of being forgotten, and the unpopular, as a rule, have
vanished out of existence, and except by pure accident could not be
found for love or money.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "COMIC NURSERY TALES" (G. ROUTLEDGE.
1846)]
With the publications of Newbery and Harris, early in the nineteenth
century, we encounter examples more nearly typical of the child's book
as we regard it to-day. Among them Harris's "Cabinet" is noticeable.
The first four volumes, "The Butterfly's Ball," "The Peacock at Home,"
"The Lion's Masquerade," and "The Elephant's Ball," were reprinted a few
years ago, with the original illustrations by Mulready carefully
reproduced. A coloured series of sixty-two books, priced at one shilling
and sixpence each (Harris), was extremely popular.
With the "Paths of Learning strewed with Flowers, or English Grammar
Illustrated" (1820), we encounter a work not without elegance. Its
designs, as we see by the examples reproduced on page 9, are the obvious
prototype of Miss Greenaway, the model that inspired her to those dainty
trifles which conquered even so stern a critic of modern illustration as
Mr. Ruskin. On its cover--a forbidding wrapper devoid of ornament--and
repeated within a wreath of roses inside, this preamble occurs: "The
purpose of this little book is to obviate the reluctance children evince
to the irksome and insipid task of learning the names and meanings of
the component parts of grammar. Our intention is to entwine roses with
instruction, and however humble our endeavour may appear, let it be
recollected that the efforts of a Mouse set the Lion free from his
toils." This oddly phrased explanation is typical of the affected
geniality of the governess. Indeed, it might have been penned by an
assistant to Miss Pinkerton, "the Semiramis of Hammersmith"; if not by
that friend of Dr. Johnson, the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone herself,
in a moment of gracious effort to bring her intellect down to the level
of her pupils.
To us, this hollow gaiety sounds almost cruel. In those days children
were always regarded as if, to quote Mark Twain, "every one being born
with an equal amount of original sin, the pressure on the square inch
must needs be greater in a baby." Poor little original sinners, how very
scurvily the world of books and picture-makers treated you less than a
century ago! Life for you then was a perpetual reformatory, a place
beset with penalties, and echoing with reproofs. Even the literature
planned to amuse your leisure was stuck full of maxims and morals; the
most piquant story was but a prelude to an awful warning; pictures of
animals, places, and rivers failed to conceal undisguised lessons. The
one impression that is left by a study of these books is the lack of
confidence in their own dignity which papas and mammas betrayed in the
early Victorian era. This seems past all doubt when you realise that the
common effort of all these pictures and prose is to glorify the
impeccable parent, and teach his or her offspring to grovel silently
before the stern law-givers who ruled the home.
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE FROM "THE SCOURING OF THE WHITE HORSE." BY
RICHARD DOYLE (MACMILLAN AND CO. 1858)]
Of course it was not really so, literature had but lately come to a
great middle class who had not learned to be easy; and as worthy folk
who talked colloquially wrote in stilted parody of Dr. Johnson's stately
periods, so the uncouth address in print to the populace of the nursery
was doubtless forgotten in daily intercourse. But the conventions were
preserved, and honest fun or full-bodied romance that loves to depict
gnomes and hob-goblins, giants and dwarfs in a world of adventure and
mystery, was unpopular. Children's books were illustrated entirely by
the wonders of the creation, or the still greater wonders of so-called
polite society. Never in them, except introduced purposely as an "awful
example," do you meet an untidy, careless, normal child. Even the
beggars are prim, and the beasts and birds distinctly genteel in their
habits. Fairyland was shut to the little ones, who were turned out of
their own domain. It seems quite likely that this continued until the
German _märchen_ (the literary products of Germany were much in favour
at this period) reopened the wonderland of the other world about the
time that Charles Dickens helped to throw the door still wider.
Discovering that the child possessed the right to be amused, the
imagination of poets and artists addressed itself at last to the most
appreciative of all audiences, a world of newcomers, with insatiable
appetites for wonders real and imaginary.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION (REDUCED) FROM "MISUNDERSTOOD" BY GEORGE DU
MAURIER (RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON. 1874)]
But for many years before the Victorian period folklore was left to the
peasants, or at least kept out of reach of children of the higher
classes. No doubt old nurses prattled it to their charges, perhaps
weak-minded mothers occasionally repeated the ancient legends, but the
printing-press set its face against fancy, and offered facts in its
stead. In the list of sixty-two books before mentioned, if we except a
few nursery jingles such as "Mother Hubbard" and "Cock Robin," we find
but two real fairy stories, "Cinderella," "Puss-in-Boots," and three
old-world narratives of adventure, "Whittington and His Cat," "The Seven
Champions of Christendom," and "Valentine and Orson." The rest are
"Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation,"
"The Monthly Monitor," "Tommy Trip's Museum of Beasts," "The
Perambulations of a Mouse," and so on, with a few things like "The House
that Jack Built," and "A, Apple Pie," that are but daily facts put into
story shape. Now it is clear that the artists inspired by fifty of these
had no chance of displaying their imagination, and every opportunity of
pointing a moral; and it is painful to be obliged to own that they
succeeded beyond belief in their efforts to be dull. Of like sort are "A
Visit to the Bazaar" (Harris, 1814), and "The Dandies' Ball" (1820).
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN."
(STRAHAN. 1871. NOW PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON)]
Nor must we forget a work very popular at this period, "Keeper in
Search of His Master," although its illustrations are not its chief
point.
According to a very interesting preface Mr. Andrew Tuer contributed to
"The Leadenhall Series of Reprints of Forgotten Books for Children in
1813," "Dame Wiggins of Lee" was first issued by A. K. Newman and Co. of
the Minerva Press. This book is perhaps better known than any of its
date owing to Mr. Ruskin's reprint with additional verses by himself,
and new designs by Miss Kate Greenaway supplementing the original cuts,
which were re-engraved in facsimile by Mr. Hooper. Mr. Tuer attributes
the design of these latter to R. Stennet (or Sinnet?), who illustrated
also "Deborah Dent and her Donkey" and "Madame Figs' Gala." Newman
issued many of these books, in conjunction with Messrs. Dean and Mundy,
the direct ancestors of the firm of Dean and Son, still flourishing, and
still engaged in providing cheap and attractive books for children. "The
Gaping Wide-mouthed Waddling Frog" is another book of about this period,
which Mr. Tuer included in his reprints. Among the many illustrated
volumes which bear the imprint of A. K. Newman, and Dean and Mundy, are
"A, Apple Pie," "Aldiborontiphoskyphorniostikos," "The House that Jack
Built," "The Parent's Offering for a Good Child" (a very pompous and
irritating series of dialogues), and others that are even more directly
educational. In all these the engravings are in fairly correct outline,
coloured with four to six washes of showy crimson lake, ultramarine,
pale green, pale sepia, and gamboge.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "GUTTA PERCHA WILLIE." BY ARTHUR HUGHES
(STRAHAN. 1870. NOW PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND." BY
ARTHUR HUGHES (STRAHAN. 1869. NOW PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON)]
Even the dreary text need not have made the illustrators quite so dull,
as we know that Randolph Caldecott would have made an illustrated
"Bradshaw" amusing; but most of his earlier predecessors show no less
power in making anything they touched "un-funny." Nor as art do their
pictures interest you any more than as anecdotes.
Of course the cost of coloured engravings prohibited their lavish use.
All were tinted by hand, sometimes with the help of stencil plates, but
more often by brush. The print colourers, we are told, lived chiefly in
the Pentonville district, or in some of the poorer streets near
Leicester Square. A few survivors are still to be found; but the
introduction first of lithography, and later of photographic processes,
has killed the industry, and even the most fanatical apostle of the old
crafts cannot wish the "hand-painter" back again. The outlines were
either cut on wood, as in the early days of printing until the present,
or else engraved on metal. In each case all colour was painted
afterwards, and in scarce a single instance (not even in the Rowlandson
caricatures or patriotic pieces) is there any attempt to obtain an
harmonious scheme such as is often found in the tinted mezzo-tints of
the same period.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND." BY
ARTHUR HUGHES (STRAHAN. 1869. NOW PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE AND SON)]
Of works primarily intended for little people, an "Hieroglyphical Bible"
for the amusement and instruction of the younger generation (1814) may
be noted. This was a mixture of picture-puns and broken words, after the
fashion of the dreary puzzles still published in snippet weeklies. It is
a melancholy attempt to turn Bible texts to picture puzzles, a book
permitted by the unco' guid to children on wet Sunday afternoons, as
some younger members of large families, whose elder brothers' books yet
lingered forty or even fifty years after publication, are able to
endorse with vivid and depressed remembrance. Foxe's "Book of Martyrs"
and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" are of the same type, and calculated
to fill a nervous child with grim terrors, not lightened by Watts's
"Divine and Moral Songs," that gloated on the dreadful hell to which
sinful children were doomed, "with devils in darkness, fire and chains."
But this painful side of the subject is not to be discussed here.
Luckily the artists--except in the "grown-up" books referred
to--disdained to enforce the terrors of Dr. Watts, and pictured less
horrible themes.
With Cruikshank we encounter almost the first glimpse of the modern
ideal. His "Grimm's Fairy Tales" are delightful in themselves, and
marvellous in comparison with all before, and no little after.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE LITTLE WONDER HORN." BY J. MAHONEY
(H. S. KING AND CO. 1872. GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 1887)]
These famous illustrations to the first selection of Grimm's "German
Popular Stories" appeared in 1824, followed by a second series in 1826.
Coming across this work after many days spent in hunting up children's
books of the period, the designs flashed upon one as masterpieces, and
for the first time seemed to justify the great popularity of Cruikshank.
For their vigour and brilliant invention, their _diablerie_ and true
local colour, are amazing when contrasted with what had been previously.
Wearied of the excessive eulogy bestowed upon Cruikshank's illustrations
to Dickens, and unable to accept the artist as an illustrator of real
characters in fiction, when he studies his elfish and other-worldly
personages, the most grudging critic must needs yield a full tribute of
praise. The volumes (published by Charles Tilt, of 82 Fleet Street) are
extremely rare; for many years past the sale-room has recorded fancy
prices for all Cruikshank's illustrations, so that a lover of modern art
has been jealous to note the amount paid for by many extremely poor
pictures by this artist, when even original drawings for the
masterpieces by later illustrators went for a song. In Mr. Temple
Scott's indispensable "Book Sales of 1896" we find the two volumes
(1823-6) fetched £12 12_s._
[Illustration: "IN NOOKS WITH BOOKS" AN AUTO-LITHOGRAPH BY R. ANNING
BELL.]
These must not be confounded with Cruikshank's "Fairy Library"
(1847-64), a series of small books in paper wrappers, now exceedingly
rare, which are more distinctly prepared for juvenile readers. The
illustrations to these do not rise above the level of their day, as did
the earlier ones. But this is owing largely to the fact that the
standard had risen far above its old average in the thirty years that
had elapsed. Amid the mass of volumes illustrated by Cruikshank
comparatively few are for juveniles; some of these are: "Grimm's Gammer
Grethel"; "Peter Schlemihl" (1824); "Christmas Recreation" (1825); "Hans
of Iceland" (1825); "German Popular Stories" (1823); "Robinson Crusoe"
(1831); "The Brownies" (1870); "Loblie-by-the-Fire" (1874); "Tom Thumb"
(1830); and "John Gilpin" (1828).
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "SPEAKING LIKENESSES." BY ARTHUR HUGHES
(MACMILLAN AND CO. 1874)]
The works of Richard Doyle (1824-1883) enjoy in a lesser degree the sort
of inflated popularity which has gathered around those of Cruikshank.
With much spirit and pleasant invention, Doyle lacked academic skill,
and often betrays considerable weakness, not merely in composition, but
in invention. Yet the qualities which won him reputation are by no means
despicable. He evidently felt the charm of fairyland, and peopled it
with droll little folk who are neither too human nor too unreal to be
attractive. He joined the staff of _Punch_ when but nineteen, and soon,
by his political cartoons, and his famous "Manners and Customs of y^e
English drawn from y^e Quick," became an established favourite. His
design for the cover of _Punch_ is one of his happiest inventions. So
highly has he been esteemed that the National Gallery possesses one of
his pictures, _The Triumphant Entry; a Fairy Pageant_. Children's books
with his illustrations are numerous; perhaps the most important are "The
Enchanted Crow" (1871), "Feast of Dwarfs" (1871), "Fortune's Favourite"
(1871), "The Fairy Ring" (1845), "In Fairyland" (1870), "Merry Pictures"
(1857), "Princess Nobody" (1884), "Mark Lemon's Fairy Tales" (1868), "A
Juvenile Calendar" (1855), "Fairy Tales from all Nations" (1849), "Snow
White and Rosy Red" (1871), Ruskin's "The King of the Golden River"
(1884), Hughes's "Scouring of the White Horse" (1859), "Jack the Giant
Killer" (1888), "Home for the Holidays" (1887), "The Whyte Fairy Book"
(1893). The three last are, of course, posthumous publications.
Still confining ourselves to the pre-Victorian period, although the
works in question were popular several decades later, we find "Sandford
and Merton" (first published in 1783, and constantly reprinted), "The
Swiss Family Robinson," the beginning of "Peter Parley's Annals," and a
vast number of other books with the same pseudonym appended, and a host
of didactic works, a large number of which contained pictures of animals
and other natural objects, more or less well drawn. But the pictures in
these are not of any great consequence, merely reflecting the average
taste of the day, and very seldom designed from a child's point of view.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "UNDINE." BY SIR JOHN TENNIEL (JAMES
BURNS. 1845)]
This very inadequate sketch of the books before 1837 is not curtailed
for want of material, but because, despite the enormous amount, very few
show attempts to please the child; to warn, to exhort, or to educate are
their chief aims. Occasionally a Bewick or an artist of real power is
met with, but the bulk is not only dull, but of small artistic value.
That the artist's name is rarely given must not be taken as a sign that
only inept draughtsmen were employed, for in works of real importance up
to and even beyond this date we often find his share ignored. After a
time the engraver claims to be considered, and by degrees the designer
is also recognised; yet for the most part illustration was looked upon
merely as "jam" to conceal the pill. The old Puritan conception of art
as vanity had something to do with this, no doubt; for adults often
demand that their children shall obey a sterner rule of life than that
which they accept themselves.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ELLIOTT'S NURSERY RHYMES" BY W. J.
WIEGAND (NOVELLO, 1870)]
Before passing on, it is as well to summarise this preamble and to
discover how far children's books had improved when her Majesty came to
the throne. The old woodcut, rough and ill-drawn, had been succeeded by
the masterpieces of Bewick, and the respectable if dull achievements of
his followers. In the better class of books were excellent designs by
artists of some repute fairly well engraved. Colouring by hand, in a
primitive fashion, was applied to these prints and to impressions from
copperplates. A certain prettiness was the highest aim of most of the
latter, and very few were designed only to amuse a child. It seems as if
all concerned were bent on unbending themselves, careful to offer grains
of truth to young minds with an occasional terrible falsity of their
attitude; indeed, its satire and profound analysis make it superfluous
to reopen the subject. As one might expect, the literature, "genteel"
and dull, naturally desired pictures in the same key. The art of even
the better class of children's books was satisfied if it succeeded in
being "genteel," or, as Miss Limpenny would say, "cumeelfo." Its ideal
reached no higher, and sometimes stopped very far below that modest
standard. This is the best (with the few exceptions already noted) one
can say of pre-Victorian illustration for children.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ELLIOTT'S NURSERY RHYMES" BY H. STACY
MARKS, R.A. (NOVELLO. 1870)]
If there is one opinion deeply rooted in the minds of the comparatively
few Britons who care for art, it is a distrust of "The Cole Gang of
South Kensington;" and yet if there be one fact which confronts any
student of the present revival of the applied arts, it is that sooner or
later you come to its first experiments inspired or actually undertaken
by Sir Henry Cole. Under the pseudonym of "Felix Summerley" we find that
the originator of a hundred revivals of the applied arts, projected and
issued a series of children's books which even to-day are decidedly
worth praise. It is the fashion to trace everything to Mr. William
Morris, but in illustrations for children as in a hundred others "Felix
Summerley" was setting the ball rolling when Morris and the members of
the famous firm were schoolboys.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WATER BABIES" BY SIR R. NOEL PATON
(MACMILLAN AND CO. 1863)]
To quote from his own words: "During this period (_i.e._, about 1844),
my young children becoming numerous, their wants induced me to publish a
rather long series of books, which constituted 'Summerley's Home
Treasury,' and I had the great pleasure of obtaining the welcome
assistance of some of the first artists of the time in illustrating
them--Mulready, R.A., Cope, R.A., Horsley, R.A., Redgrave, R.A.,
Webster, R.A., Linnell and his three sons, John, James, and William, H.
J. Townsend, and others.... The preparation of these books gave me
practical knowledge in the technicalities of the arts of type-printing,
lithography, copper and steel-plate engraving and printing, and
bookbinding in all its varieties in metal, wood, leather, &c."
Copies of the books in question appear to be very rare. It is doubtful
if the omnivorous British Museum has swallowed a complete set; certainly
at the Art Library of South Kensington Museum, where, if anywhere, we
might expect to find Sir Henry Cole completely represented, many gaps
occur.
How far Mr. Joseph Cundall, the publisher, should be awarded a share of
the credit for the enterprise is not apparent, but his publications and
writings, together with the books issued later by Cundall and Addey, are
all marked with the new spirit, which so far as one can discover was
working in many minds at this time, and manifested itself most
conspicuously through the Pre-Raphaelites and their allies. This all
took place, it must be remembered, long before 1851. We forget often
that if that exhibition has any important place in the art history of
Great Britain, it does but prove that much preliminary work had been
already accomplished. You cannot exhibit what does not exist; you cannot
even call into being "exhibition specimens" at a few months notice, if
something of the same sort, worked for ordinary commerce, has not
already been in progress for years previously.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE ROYAL UMBRELLA." BY LINLEY
SAMBOURNE (GRIFFITH AND FARRAN. 1880)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ON A PINCUSHION." BY WILLIAM DE MORGAN
(SEELEY, JACKSON AND HALLIDAY. 1877)]
Almost every book referred to has been examined anew for the purposes of
this article. As a whole they might fail to impress a critic not
peculiarly interested in the matter. But if he tries to project himself
to the period that produced them, and realises fully the enormous
importance of first efforts, he will not estimate grudgingly their
intrinsic value, but be inclined to credit them with the good things
they never dreamed of, as well as those they tried to realise and often
failed to achieve. Here, without any prejudice for or against the South
Kensington movement, it is but common justice to record Sir Henry Cole's
share in the improvement of children's books; and later on his efforts
on behalf of process engraving must also not be forgotten.
To return to the books in question, some extracts from the original
prospectus, which speaks of them as "purposed to cultivate the
Affections, Fancy, Imagination, and Taste of Children," are worth
quotation:
"The character of most children's books published during the last
quarter of a century, is fairly typified in the name of Peter Parley,
which the writers of some hundreds of them have assumed. The books
themselves have been addressed after a narrow fashion, almost entirely
to the cultivation of the understanding of children. The many tales sung
or said from time to time immemorial, which appealed to the other, and
certainly not less important elements of a little child's mind, its
fancy, imagination, sympathies, affections, are almost all gone out of
memory, and are scarcely to be obtained. 'Little Red Riding Hood,' and
other fairy tales hallowed to children's use, are now turned into
ribaldry as satires for men; as for the creation of a new fairy tale or
touching ballad, such a thing is unheard of. That the influence of all
this is hurtful to children, the conductor of this series firmly
believes. He has practical experience of it every day in his own family,
and he doubts not that there are many others who entertain the same
opinions as himself. He purposes at least to give some evidence of his
belief, and to produce a series of works, the character of which may be
briefly described as anti-Peter Parleyism.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE NECKLACE OF PRINCESS FIORIMONDE."
BY WALTER CRANE (MACMILLAN AND CO. 1880)]
"Some will be new works, some new combinations of old materials, and
some reprints carefully cleared of impurities, without deterioration to
the points of the story. All will be illustrated, but not after the
usual fashion of children's books, in which it seems to be assumed that
the lowest kind of art is good enough to give first impressions to a
child. In the present series, though the statement may perhaps excite a
smile, the illustrations will be selected from the works of Raffaelle,
Titian, Hans Holbein, and other old masters. Some of the best modern
artists have kindly promised their aid in creating a taste for beauty in
little children." Did space permit, a selection from the reviews of the
chief literary papers that welcomed the new venture would be
instructive. There we should find that even the most cautious critic,
always "hedging" and playing for safety, felt compelled to accord a
certain amount of praise to the new enterprise.
It is true that "Felix Summerley" created only one type of the modern
book. Possibly the "stories turned into satires" to which he alludes are
the entirely amusing volumes by F. H. Bayley, the author of "A New Tale
of a Tub." As it happened that these volumes were my delight as a small
boy, possibly I am unduly fond of them; but it seems to me that their
humour--_à la_ Ingoldsby, it is true--and their exuberantly comic
drawings, reveal the first glimpses of lighter literature addressed
specially to children, that long after found its masterpieces in the
"Crane" and "Greenaway" and "Caldecott" Toy Books, in "Alice in
Wonderland," and in a dozen other treasured volumes, which are now
classics. The chief claim for the Home Treasury series to be considered
as the advance guard of our present sumptuous volumes, rests not so much
upon the quality of their designs or the brightness of their literature.
Their chief importance is that in each of them we find for the first
time that the externals of a child's book are most carefully considered.
Its type is well chosen, the proportions of its page are evidently
studied, its binding, even its end-papers, show that some one person was
doing his best to attain perfection. It is this conscious effort,
whatever it actually realised, which distinguishes the result from all
before.
It is evident that the series--the Home Treasury--took itself seriously.
Its purpose was Art with a capital A--a discovery, be it noted, of this
period. Sir Henry Cole, in a footnote to the very page whence the
quotation above was extracted, discusses the first use of "Art" as an
adjective denoting the _Fine_ Arts.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "HOUSEHOLD STORIES FROM GRIMM." BY
WALTER CRANE (MACMILLAN AND CO. 1882)]
Here it is more than ever difficult to keep to the thread of this
discourse. All that South Kensington did and failed to do, the æsthetic
movement of the eighties, the new gospel of artistic salvation by
Liberty fabrics and De Morgan tiles, the erratic changes of fashion in
taste, the collapse of Gothic architecture, the triumph of Queen Anne,
and the Arts and Crafts movement of the nineties--in short, all the
story of Art in the last fifty years, from the new Law Courts to the
Tate Gallery, from Felix Summerley to a Hollyer photograph, from the
introduction of glyptography to the pictures in the _Daily Chronicle_,
demand notice. But the door must be shut on the turbulent throng, and
only children's books allowed to pass through.
The publications by "Felix Summerley," according to the list in "Fifty
Years of Public Work," by Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B. (Bell, 1884), include:
"Holbein's Bible Events," eight pictures, coloured by Mr. Linnell's
sons, 4_s._ 6_d._; "Raffaelle's Bible Events," six pictures from the
Loggia, drawn on stone by Mr. Linnell's children and coloured by them,
5_s._ 6_d._; "Albert Dürer's Bible Events," six pictures from Dürer's
"Small Passion," coloured by the brothers Linnell; "Traditional Nursery
Songs," containing eight pictures; "The Beggars coming to Town," by C.
W. Cope, R.A.; "By, O my Baby!" by R. Redgrave, R.A.; "Mother Hubbard,"
by T. Webster, R.A.; "1, 2, 3, 4, 5," "Sleepy Head," "Up in a Basket,"
"Cat asleep by the Fire," by John Linnell, 4_s._ 6_d._, coloured; "The
Ballad of Sir Hornbook," by Thos. Love Peacock, with eight pictures by
H. Corbould, coloured, 4_s._ 6_d._ (A book with the same title, also
described as a "grammatico-allegorical ballad," was published by N.
Haites in 1818.) "Chevy Chase," with music and four pictures by
Frederick Tayler, President of the Water-Colour Society, coloured, 4_s._
6_d._; "Puck's Reports to Oberon"; Four new Faëry Tales: "The Sisters,"
"Golden Locks," "Grumble and Cherry," "Arts and Arms," by C. A. Cole,
with six pictures by J. H. Townsend, R. Redgrave, R.A., J. C. Horsley,
R.A., C. W. Cope, R.A., and F. Tayler; "Little Red Riding Hood," with
four pictures by Thos. Webster, coloured, 3_s._ 6_d._; "Beauty and the
Beast," with four pictures by J. C. Horsley, R.A., coloured, 3_s._
6_d._; "Jack and the Bean Stalk," with four pictures by C. W. Cope,
R.A., coloured, 3_s._ 6_d._; "Cinderella," with four pictures by E. H.
Wehnert, coloured, 3_s._ 6_d._; "Jack the Giant Killer," with four
pictures by C. W. Cope, coloured, 3_s._ 6_d._; "The Home Treasury
Primer," printed in colours, with drawing on zinc, by W. Mulready, R.A.;
"Alphabets of Quadrupeds," selected from the works of Paul Potter, Karl
du Jardin, Teniers, Stoop, Rembrandt, &c., and drawn from nature; "The
Pleasant History of Reynard the Fox," with forty of the fifty-seven
etchings made by Everdingen in 1752, coloured, 31_s._ 6_d._; "A Century
of Fables," with pictures by the old masters.
To this list should be added--if it is not by "Felix Summerley," it is
evidently conceived by the same spirit and published also by
Cundall--"Gammer Gurton's Garland," by Ambrose Merton, with
illustrations by T. Webster and others. This was also issued as a series
of sixpenny books, of which Mr. Elkin Mathews owns a nearly complete
set, in their original covers of gold and coloured paper.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "A WONDER BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS."
BY WALTER CRANE (OSGOOD, MCILVAINE AND CO. 1892)]
It would be very easy to over-estimate the intrinsic merit of these
books, but when you consider them as pioneers it would be hard to
over-rate the importance of the new departure. To enlist the talent of
the most popular artists of the period, and produce volumes printed in
the best style of the Chiswick Press, with bindings and end-papers
specially designed, and the whole "get up" of the book carefully
considered, was certainly a bold innovation in the early forties. That
it failed to be a profitable venture one may deduce from the fact that
the "Felix Summerley" series did not run to many volumes, and that the
firm who published them, after several changes, seems to have expired,
or more possibly was incorporated with some other venture. The books
themselves are forgotten by most booksellers to-day, as I have
discovered from many fruitless demands for copies.
The little square pamphlets by F. H. Bayley, to which allusion has
already been made, include "Blue Beard;" "Robinson Crusoe," and "Red
Riding Hood," all published about 1845-6.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE." BY KATE
GREENAWAY (EDMUND EVANS. 1887)]
Whether "The Sleeping Beauty," then announced as in preparation, was
published, I do not know. Their rhyming chronicle in the style of the
"Ingoldsby Legends" is neatly turned, and the topical allusions,
although out of date now, are not sufficiently frequent to make it
unintelligible. The pictures (possibly by Alfred Crowquill) are
conceived in a spirit of burlesque, and are full of ingenious conceits
and no little grim vigour. The design of Robinson Crusoe roosting in a
tree--
And so he climbs up a very tall tree,
And fixes himself to his comfort and glee,
Hung up from the end of a branch by his breech,
Quite out of all mischievous quadrupeds' reach.
A position not perfectly easy 't is true,
But yet at the same time consoling and new--
reproduced on p. 13, shows the wilder humour of the illustrations.
Another of Blue Beard, and one of the wolf suffering from undigested
grandmother, are also given. They need no comment, except to note that
in the originals, printed on a coloured tint with the high lights left
white, the ferocity of Blue Beard is greatly heightened. The wolf, "as
he lay there brimful of grandmother and guilt," is one of the best of
the smaller pictures in the text.
Other noteworthy books which appeared about this date are Mrs. Felix
Summerley's "Mother's Primer," illustrated by W. M[ulready?], Longmans,
1843; "Little Princess," by Mrs. John Slater, 1843, with six charming
lithographs by J. C. Horsley, R.A. (one of which is reproduced on p.
11); the "Honey Stew," of the Countess Bertha Jeremiah How, 1846, with
coloured plates by Harrison Weir; "Early Days of English Princes," with
capital illustrations by John Franklin; and a series of Pleasant Books
for Young Children, 6_d._ plain and 1_s._ coloured, published by Cundall
and Addey.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "LITTLE FOLKS" BY KATE GREENAWAY
(CASSELL AND CO.)]
In 1846 appeared a translation of De La Motte Fouqué's romances,
"Undine" being illustrated by John Tenniel, jun., and the following
volumes by J. Franklin, H. C. Selous, and other artists. The Tenniel
designs, as the frontispiece reproduced on p. 20 shows clearly, are
interesting both in themselves and as the earliest published work of the
famous _Punch_ cartoonist. The strong German influence they show is also
apparent in nearly all the decorations. "The Juvenile Verse and Picture
Book" (1848), also contains designs by Tenniel, and others by W. B.
Scott and Sir John Gilbert. The ideal they established is maintained
more or less closely for a long period. "Songs for Children" (W. S. Orr,
1850); "Young England's Little Library" (1851); Mrs. S. C. Hall's
"Number One," with pictures by John Absolon (1854); "Stories about
Dogs," with "plates by Thomas Landseer" (Bogue, _c._ 1850); "The Three
Bears," illustrated by Absolon and Harrison Weir (Addey and Co., no
date); "Nursery Poetry" (Bell and Daldy, 1859), may be noted as typical
examples of this period.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN" BY KATE
GREENAWAY (EDMUND EVANS)]
In "Granny's Story Box" (Piper, Stephenson, and Spence, about 1855), a
most delicious collection of fairy tales illustrated by J. Knight, we
find the author in his preface protesting against the opinion of a
supposititious old lady who "thought all fairy tales were abolished
years ago by Peter Parley and the _Penny Magazine_." These fanciful
stories deserve to be republished, for they are not old-fashioned, even
if their pictures are.
To what date certain delightfully printed little volumes, issued by
Tabart and Co., 157 Bond Street, may be ascribed I know not--probably
some years before the time we are considering, but they must not be
overlooked. The title of one, "Mince Pies for Christmas," suggests that
it is not very far before, for the legend of Christmas festivities had
not long been revived for popular use.
"The Little Lychetts," by the author of "John Halifax," illustrated by
Henry Warren, President of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours
(now the R.I.) is remarkable for the extremely uncomely type of children
it depicts; yet that its charm is still vivid, despite its "severe"
illustrations, you have but to lend it to a child to be convinced
quickly.
"Jack's Holiday," by Albert Smith (undated), suggests a new field of
research which might lead us astray, as Smith's humour is more often
addressed primarily to adults. Indeed, the effort to make this chronicle
even representative, much less exhaustive, breaks down in the fifties,
when so much good yet not very exhilarating material is to be found in
every publisher's list. John Leech in "The Silver Swan" of Mdme. de
Chatelaine; Charles Keene in "The Adventures of Dick Bolero" (Darton, no
date), and "Robinson Crusoe" (drawn upon for illustration here), and
others of the _Punch_ artists, should find their works duly catalogued
even in this hasty sketch; but space compels scant justice to many
artists of the period, yet if the most popular are left unnoticed such
omission will more easily right itself to any reader interested in the
subject.
Many show influences of the Gothic revival which was then in the air,
but only those which have some idea of book decoration as opposed to
inserted pictures. For a certain "formal" ornamentation of the page was
in fashion in the "forties" and "fifties," even as it is to-day.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "CAPE TOWN DICKY" BY ALICE HAVERS (C.
W. FAULKNER AND CO.)]
To the artists named as representative of this period one must not
forget to add Mr. Birket Foster, who devoted many of his felicitous
studies of English pastoral life to the adornment of children's books.
But speaking broadly of the period from the Queen's Accession to 1865,
except that the subjects are of a sort supposed to appeal to young
minds, their conception differs in no way from the work of the same
artists in ordinary literature. The vignettes of scenery have childish
instead of grown-up figures in the foregrounds; the historical or
legendary figures are as seriously depicted in the one class of books as
in the other. Humour is conspicuous by its absence--or, to be more
accurate, the humour is more often in the accompanying anecdote than in
the picture. Probably if the authorship of hundreds of the illustrations
of "Peter Parley's Annuals" and other books of this period could be
traced, artists as famous as Charles Keene might be found to have
contributed. But, owing to the mediocre wood-engraving employed, or to
the poor printing, the pictures are singularly unattractive. As a rule,
they are unsigned and appear to be often mere pot-boilers--some no doubt
intentionally disowned by the designer--others the work of 'prentice
hands who afterwards became famous. Above all they are, essentially,
illustrations to children's books only because they chanced to be
printed therein, and have sometimes done duty in "grown-up" books first.
Hence, whatever their artistic merits, they do not appeal to a student
of our present subject. They are accidentally present in books for
children, but essentially they belong to ordinary illustrations.
Indeed, speaking generally, the time between "Felix Summerley" and
_Walter Crane_, which saw two Great Exhibitions and witnessed many
advances in popular illustration, was too much occupied with catering
for adults to be specially interested in juveniles. Hence,
notwithstanding the names of "illustrious illustrators" to be found on
their title-pages, no great injustice will be done if we leave this
period and pass on to that which succeeded it. For the Great Exhibition
fostered the idea that a smattering of knowledge of a thousand and one
subjects was good. Hence the chastened gaiety of its mildly technical
science, its popular manuals by Dr. Dionysius Lardner, and its return in
another form to the earlier ideal that amusement should be combined with
instruction. All sorts of attempts were initiated to make Astronomy
palatable to babies, Botany an amusing game for children, Conchology a
parlour pastime, and so on through the alphabet of sciences down to
Zoology, which is never out of favour with little ones, even if its
pictures be accompanied by a dull encylopædia of fact.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WHITE SWANS" BY ALICE HAVERS (_By
permission of Mr. Albert Hildesheimer_)]
Therefore, except so far as the work of certain illustrators, hereafter
noticed, touches this period, we may leave it; not because it is
unworthy of most serious attention, for in Sir John Gilbert, Birket
Foster, Harrison Weir, and the rest, we have men to reckon with whenever
a chronicle of English illustration is in question, but only because
they did not often feel disposed to make their work merely amusing. In
saying this it is not suggested that they should have tried to be always
humorous or archaic, still less to bring down their talent to the
supposed level of a child; but only to record the fact that they did
not. For instance, Sir John Gilbert's spirited compositions to a "Boy's
Book of Ballads" (Bell and Daldy) as you see them mixed with other of
the master's work in the reference scrap-books of the publishers, do not
at once separate themselves from the rest as "juvenile" pictures.
Nor as we approach the year 1855 (of the "Music Master"), and 1857 (when
the famous edition of Tennyson's Poems began a series of superbly
illustrated books), do we find any immediate change in the illustration
of children's books. The solitary example of Sir Edward Burne-Jones's
efforts in this direction, in the frontispiece and title-page to
Maclaren's "The Fairy Family" (Longmans, 1857), does not affect this
statement. But soon after, as the school of Walker and Pinwell became
popular, there is a change in books of all sorts, and Millais and Arthur
Hughes, two of the three illustrators of the notable "Music Master,"
come into our list of children's artists. At this point the attempt to
weave a chronicle of children's books somewhat in the date of their
publication must give way to a desultory notice of the most prominent
illustrators. For we have come to the beginning of to-day rather than
the end of yesterday, and can regard the "sixties" onwards as part of
the present.
It is true that the Millais of the wonderful designs to "The Parables"
more often drew pictures of children than of children's pet themes, but
all the same they are entirely lovable, and appeal equally to children
of all ages. But his work in this field is scanty; nearly all will be
found in "Little Songs for me to Sing" (Cassell), or in "Lilliput Levee"
(1867), and these latter had appeared previously in _Good Words_. Of
Arthur Hughes's work we will speak later.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED
(LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)]
Another artist whose work bulks large in our subject--Arthur Boyd
Houghton--soon appears in sight, and whether he depicted babies at play
as in "Home Thoughts and Home Scenes," a book of thirty-five pictures of
little people, or imagined the scenes of stories dear to them in "The
Arabian Nights," or books like "Ernie Elton" or "The Boy Pilgrims,"
written especially for them, in each he succeeded in winning their
hearts, as every one must admit who chanced in childhood to possess his
work. So much has been printed lately of the artist and his work, that
here a bare reference will suffice.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED
(LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)]
Arthur Hughes, whose work belongs to many of the periods touched upon in
this rambling chronicle, may be called _the_ children's
"black-and-white" artist of the "sixties" (taking the date broadly as
comprising the earlier "seventies" also), even as Walter Crane is their
"limner in colours." His work is evidently conceived with the serious
make-believe that is the very essence of a child's imagination. He seems
to put down on paper the very spirit of fancy. Whether as an artist he
is fully entitled to the rank some of his admirers (of whom I am one)
would claim, is a question not worth raising here--the future will
settle that for us. But as a children's illustrator he is surely
illustrator-in-chief to the Queen of the Fairies, and to a whole
generation of readers of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" also. His
contributions to "Good Words for the Young" would alone entitle him to
high eminence. In addition to these, which include many stories perhaps
better known in book form, such as: "The Boy in Grey" (H. Kingsley),
George Macdonald's "At the Back of the North Wind," "The Princess and
the Goblin," "Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood," "Gutta-Percha Willie" (these
four were published by Strahan, and now may be obtained in reprints
issued by Messrs. Blackie), and "Lilliput Lectures" (a book of essays
for children by Matthew Browne), we find him as sole illustrator of
Christina Rossetti's "Sing Song," "Five Days' Entertainment at Wentworth
Grange," "Dealings with the Fairies," by George Macdonald (a very scarce
volume nowadays), and the chief contributor to the first illustrated
edition of "Tom Brown's Schooldays." In Novello's "National Nursery
Rhymes" are also several of his designs.
This list, which occupies so small a space, represents several hundred
designs, all treated in a manner which is decorative (although it
eschews the Dürer line), but marked by strong "colour." Indeed, Mr.
Hughes's technique is all his own, and if hard pressed one might own
that in certain respects it is not impeccable. But if his textures are
not sufficiently differentiated, or even if his drawing appears careless
at times--both charges not to be admitted without vigorous
protest--granting the opponent's view for the moment, it would be
impossible to find the same peculiar tenderness and naïve fancy in the
work of any other artist. His invention seems inexhaustible and his
composition singularly fertile: he can create "bogeys" as well as
"fairies."
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK." BY LANCELOT SPEED
(LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "DOWN THE SNOW STAIRS." BY GORDON
BROWNE (BLACKIE AND SON)]
It is true that his children are related to the sexless idealised race
of Sir Edward Burne-Jones's heroes and heroines; they are purged of
earthy taint, and idealised perhaps a shade too far. They adopt
attitudes graceful if not realistic, they have always a grave serenity
of expression; and yet withal they endear themselves in a way wholly
their own. It is strange that a period which has bestowed so much
appreciation on the work of the artists of "the sixties" has seen no
knight-errant with "Arthur Hughes" inscribed on his banner--no
exhibition of his black-and-white work, no craze in auction-rooms for
first editions of books he illustrated. He has, however, a steady if
limited band of very faithful devotees, and perhaps--so inconsistent are
we all--they love his work all the better because the blast of
popularity has not trumpeted its merits to all and sundry.
Three artists, often coupled together--Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott,
and Kate Greenaway--have really little in common, except that they all
designed books for children which were published about the same period.
For Walter Crane is the serious apostle of art for the nursery, who
strove to beautify its ideal, to decorate its legends with a real
knowledge of architecture and costume, and to "mount" the fairy stories
with a certain archæological splendour, as Sir Henry Irving has set
himself to mount Shakespearean drama. Caldecott was a fine literary
artist, who was able to express himself with rare facility in pictures
in place of words, so that his comments upon a simple text reveal
endless subtleties of thought. Indeed, he continued to make a fairly
logical sequence of incidents out of the famous nonsense paragraph
invented to confound mnemonics by its absolute irrelevancy. Miss
Greenaway's charm lies in the fact that she first recognised quaintness
in what had been considered merely "old fashion," and continued to
infuse it with a glamour that made it appear picturesque. Had she
dressed her figures in contemporary costume most probably her work would
have taken its place with the average, and never obtained more than
common popularity.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE" BY GORDON BROWNE
(BLACKIE AND SON)]
But Mr. Walter Crane is almost unique in his profound sympathy with the
fantasies he imagines. There is no trace of make-believe in his designs.
On the contrary, he makes the old legends become vital, not because of
the personalities he bestows on his heroes and fairy princesses--his
people move often in a rapt ecstasy--but because the adjuncts of his
_mise-en-scènes_ are realised intimately. His prince is much more the
typical hero than any particular person; his fair ladies might exchange
places, and few would notice the difference; but when it comes to the
environment, the real incidents of the story, then no one has more fully
grasped both the dramatic force and the local colour. If his people are
not peculiarly alive, they are in harmony with the re-edified cities and
woods that sprang up under his pencil. He does not bestow the hoary
touch of antiquity on his mediæval buildings; they are all new and
comely, in better taste probably than the actual buildings, but not more
idealised than are his people. He is the true artist of fairyland,
because he recognises its practical possibilities, and yet does not lose
the glamour which was never on sea or land. No artist could give more
cultured notions of fairyland. In his work the vulgar glories of a
pantomime are replaced by well-conceived splendour; the tawdry adjuncts
of a throne-room, as represented in a theatre, are ignored. Temples and
palaces of the early Renaissance, filled with graceful--perhaps a shade
too suave--figures, embody all the charm of the impossible country, with
none of the sordid drawbacks that are common to real life. In modern
dress, as in his pictures to many of Mrs. Molesworth's stories, there is
a certain unlikeness to life as we know it, which does not detract from
the effect of the design; but while this is perhaps distracting in
stories of contemporary life, it is a very real advantage in those of
folk-lore, which have no actual date, and are therefore unafraid of
anachronisms of any kind. The spirit of his work is, as it should be,
intensely serious, yet the conceits which are showered upon it exactly
harmonise with the mood of most of the stories that have attracted his
pencil. Grimm's "Household Stories," as he pictured them, are a lasting
joy. The "Bluebeard" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" toy books, the
"Princess Belle Etoile," and a dozen others are nursery classics, and
classics also of the other nursery where children of a larger growth
take their pleasure.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE." BY WILL PAGET.
(CASSELL AND CO.)]
Without a shade of disrespect towards all the other artists represented
in this special number, had it been devoted solely to Mr. Walter Crane's
designs, it would have been as interesting in every respect. There is
probably not a single illustrator here mentioned who would not endorse
such a statement. For as a maker of children's books, no one ever
attempted the task he fulfilled so gaily, and no one since has beaten
him on his own ground. Even Mr. Howard Pyle, his most worthy rival, has
given us no wealth of colour-prints. So that the famous toy books still
retain their well-merited position as the most delightful books for the
nursery and the studio, equally beloved by babies and artists.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ENGLISH FAIRY TALES" BY J. D. BATTEN
(DAVID NUTT)]
Although a complete iconography of Mr. Walter Crane's work has not yet
been made, the following list of such of his children's books as I have
been able to trace may be worth printing for the benefit of those who
have not access to the British Museum; where, by the way, many are not
included in that section of its catalogue devoted to "Crane, Walter."
[Illustration: "SO LIGHT OF FOOT, SO LIGHT OF SPIRIT." BY CHARLES
ROBINSON]
The famous series of toy books by Walter Crane include: "The Railroad A
B C," "The Farmyard A B C," "Sing a Song of Sixpence," "The Waddling
Frog," "The Old Courtier," "Multiplication in Verse," "Chattering Jack,"
"How Jessie was Lost," "Grammar in Rhyme," "Annie and Jack in London,"
"One, Two, Buckle my Shoe," "The Fairy Ship," "Adventures of Puffy,"
"This Little Pig went to Market," "King Luckieboy's Party," "Noah's Ark
Alphabet," "My Mother," "The Forty Thieves," "The Three Bears,"
"Cinderella," "Valentine and Orson," "Puss in Boots," "Old Mother
Hubbard," "The Absurd A B C," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Jack and
the Beanstalk," "Blue Beard," "Baby's Own Alphabet," "The Sleeping
Beauty." All these were published at sixpence. A larger series at one
shilling includes: "The Frog Prince," "Goody Two Shoes," "Beauty and the
Beast," "Alphabet of Old Friends," "The Yellow Dwarf," "Aladdin," "The
Hind in the Wood," and "Princess Belle Etoile." All these were published
from 1873 onwards by Routledge, and printed in colours by Edmund Evans.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ENGLISH FAIRY TALES." BY J. D. BATTEN
(DAVID NUTT)]
A small quarto series Routledge published at five shillings includes:
"The Baby's Opera," "The Baby's Bouquet," "The Baby's Own Æsop." Another
and larger quarto, "Flora's Feast" (1889), and "Queen Summer" (1891),
were both published by Cassells, who issued also "Legends for Lionel"
(1887). "Pan Pipes," an oblong folio with music was issued by Routledge.
Messrs. Marcus Ward produced "Slate and Pencilvania," "Pothooks and
Perseverance," "Romance of the Three Rs," "Little Queen Anne" (1885-6),
Hawthorne's "A Wonder Book," first published in America, is a quarto
volume with elaborate designs in colour; and "The Golden Primer" (1884),
two vols., by Professor Meiklejohn (Blackwood) is, like all the above,
in colour.
Of a series of stories by Mrs. Molesworth the following volumes are
illustrated by Mr. Crane:--"A Christmas Posy" (1888), "Carrots" (1876),
"A Christmas Child" (1886), "Christmas-tree Land" (1884), "The Cuckoo
Clock" (1877), "Four Winds Farm" (1887), "Grandmother Dear" (1878),
"Herr Baby" (1881), "Little Miss Peggy" (1887), "The Rectory Children"
(1889), "Rosy" (1882), "The Tapestry Room" (1879), "Tell me a Story,"
"Two Little Waifs," "Us" (1885), and "Children of the Castle" (1890).
Earlier in date are "Stories from Memel" (1864), "Stories of Old,"
"Children's Sayings" (1861), two series, "Poor Match" (1861), "The Merry
Heart," with eight coloured plates (Cassell); "King Gab's Story Bag"
(Cassell), "Magic of Kindness" (1869), "Queen of the Tournament,"
"History of Poor Match," "Our Uncle's Old Home" (1872), "Sunny Days"
(1871), "The Turtle Dove's Nest" (1890). Later come "The Necklace of
Princess Fiorimonde" (1880), the famous edition of Grimm's "Household
Stories" (1882), both published by Macmillan, and C. C. Harrison's "Folk
and Fairy Tales" (1885), "The Happy Prince" (Nutt, 1888). Of these the
"Grimm" and "Fiorimonde" are perhaps two of the most important
illustrated books noted in these pages.
Randolph Caldecott founded a school that still retains fresh hold of the
British public. But with all respect to his most loyal disciple, Mr.
Hugh Thomson, one doubts if any successor has equalled the master in the
peculiar subtlety of his pictured comment upon the bare text. You have
but to turn to any of his toy books to see that at times each word,
almost each syllable, inspired its own picture; and that the artist not
only conceived the scene which the text called into being, but each
successive step before and after the reported incident itself. In "The
House that Jack Built," "This is the Rat that Ate the Malt" supplies a
subject for five pictures. First the owner carrying in the malt, next
the rat driven away by the man, then the rat peeping up into the
deserted room, next the rat studying a placard upside down inscribed
"four measures of malt," and finally, the gorged animal sitting upon an
empty measure. So "This is the Cat that Killed the Rat" is expanded into
five pictures. The dog has four, the cat three, and the rest of the
story is amplified with its secondary incidents duly sought and
depicted. This literary expression is possibly the most marked
characteristic of a facile and able draughtsman. He studied his subject
as no one else ever studied it--he must have played with it, dreamed of
it, worried it night and day, until he knew it ten times better than its
author. Then he portrayed it simply and with irresistible vigour, with a
fine economy of line and colour; when colour is added, it is mainly as a
gay convention, and not closely imitative of nature. The sixteen toy
books which bear his name are too well known to make a list of their
titles necessary. A few other children's books--"What the Blackbird
Said" (Routledge, 1881), "Jackanapes," "Lob-lie-by-the-Fire," "Daddy
Darwin's Dovecot," all by Mrs. Ewing (S.P.C.K.), "Baron Bruno"
(Macmillan), "Some of Æsop's Fables" (Macmillan), and one or two others,
are of secondary importance from our point of view here.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE
(HARPER AND BROTHERS. 1894)]
It is no overt dispraise to say of Miss Kate Greenaway that few artists
made so great a reputation in so small a field. Inspired by the
children's books of 1820 (as a reference to a design, "Paths of
Learning," reproduced on p. 9 will show), and with a curious naïvety
that was even more unconcerned in its dramatic effect than were the
"missal marge" pictures of the illuminators, by her simple presentation
of the childishness of childhood she won all hearts. Her little people
are the _beau-idéal_ of nursery propriety--clean, good-tempered, happy
small gentlefolk. For, though they assume peasants' garb, they never
betray boorish manners. Their very abandon is only that of nice little
people in play-hours, and in their wildest play the penalties that await
torn knickerbockers or soiled frocks are not absent from their minds.
Whether they really interested children as they delighted their elders
is a moot point. The verdict of many modern children is unanimous in
praise, and possibly because they represented the ideal every properly
educated child is supposed to cherish. The slight taint of priggishness
which occasionally is there did not reveal itself to a child's eye. Miss
Greenaway's art, however, is not one to analyse but to enjoy. That she
is a most careful and painstaking worker is a fact, but one that would
not in itself suffice to arouse one's praise. The absence of effort
which makes her work look happy and without effort is not its least
charm. Her gay yet "cultured" colour, her appreciation of green chairs
and formal gardens, all came at the right time. The houses by a Norman
Shaw found a Morris and a Liberty ready with furniture and fabrics, and
all sorts of manufacturers devoting themselves to the production of
pleasant objects, to fill them; and for its drawing-room tables Miss
Greenaway produced books that were in the same key. But as the
architecture and the fittings, at their best, proved to be no passing
whim, but the germ of a style, so her illustration is not a trifling
sport, but a very real, if small, item in the history of the evolution
of picture-books. Good taste is the prominent feature of her work, and
good taste, if out of fashion for a time, always returns, and is
treasured by future generations, no matter whether it be in accord with
the expression of the hour or distinctly archaic. Time is a very
stringent critic, and much that passed as tolerably good taste when it
fell in with the fashion, looks hopelessly vulgar when the tide of
popularity has retreated. Miss Greenaway's work appears as refined ten
years after its "boom," as it did when it was at the flood. That in
itself is perhaps an evidence of its lasting power; for ten or a dozen
years impart a certain shabby and worn aspect that has no flavour of the
antique as a saving virtue to atone for its shortcomings.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE.
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE WONDER CLOCK." BY HOWARD PYLE.
(HARPER AND BROTHERS)]
It seems almost superfluous to give a list of the principal books by
Miss Kate Greenaway, yet for the convenience of collectors the names of
the most noteworthy volumes may be set down. Those with coloured plates
are: "A, Apple Pie" (1886), "Alphabet" (1885), "Almanacs" (from 1882
yearly), "Birthday Book" (1880), "Book of Games" (1889), "A Day in a
Child's Life" (1885), "King Pepito" (1889), "Language of Flowers"
(1884), "Little Ann" (1883), "Marigold Garden" (1885), "Mavor's Spelling
Book" (1885), "Mother Goose" (1886), "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" (1889),
"Painting Books" (1879 and 1885), "Queen Victoria's Jubilee Garland"
(1887), "Queen of the Pirate Isle" (1886), "Under the Window" (1879).
Others with black-and-white illustrations include "Child of the
Parsonage" (1874), "Fairy Gifts" (1875), "Seven Birthdays" (1876),
"Starlight Stories" (1877), "Topo" (1878), "Dame Wiggins of Lee" (Allen,
1885), "Stories from the Eddas" (1883).
Many designs, some in colour, are to be found in volumes of _Little
Folks_, _Little Wideawake_, _Every Girl's Magazine_, _Girl's Own Paper_,
and elsewhere.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES" BY WINIFRED
SMITH (DAVID NUTT. 1894)]
The art of Miss Greenaway is part of the legend of the æsthetic craze,
and while its storks and sunflowers have faded, and some of its
eccentricities are forgotten, the quaint little pictures on Christmas
cards, in toy books, and elsewhere, are safely installed as items of the
art product of the century. Indeed, many a popular Royal Academy picture
is likely to be forgotten before the illustrations from her hand.
_Bric-à-brac_ they were, but more than that, for they gave infinite
pleasure to thousands of children of all ages, and if they do not rise
up and call her blessed, they retain a very warm memory of one who gave
them so much innocent pleasure.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "UNDINE" BY HEYWOOD SUMNER (CHAPMAN AND
HALL)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE RED FAIRY BOOK" BY L. SPEED
(LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 1895)]
Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, beginning as they do with "Undine"
(1845), already mentioned, include others in volumes for young people
that need not be quoted. But with his designs for "Alice in Wonderland"
(Macmillan, 1866), and "Through the Looking Glass" (1872), we touch
_the_ two most notable children's books of the century. To say less
would be inadequate and to say more needless. For every one knows the
incomparable inventions which "Lewis Carroll" imagined and Sir John
Tenniel depicted. They are veritable classics, of which, as it is too
late to praise them, no more need be said.
Certain coloured picture books by J. E. Rogers were greeted with
extravagant eulogy at the time they appeared "in the seventies." "Worthy
to be hung at the Academy beside the best pictures of Millais or
Sandys," one fatuous critic observed. Looking over their pages again, it
seems strange that their very weak drawing and crude colour could have
satisfied people familiar with Mr. Walter Crane's masterly work in a not
dissimiliar style. "Ridicula Rediviva" and "Mores Ridiculi" (both
Macmillan), were illustrations of nursery rhymes. To "The Fairy Book"
(1870), a selection of old stories re-told by the author of "John
Halifax," Mr. Rogers contributed many full pages in colour, and also to
Mr. F. C. Burnand's "Present Pastimes of Merrie England" (1872). They
are interesting as documents, but not as art; for their lack of academic
knowledge is not counterbalanced by peculiar "feeling" or ingenious
conceit. They are merely attempts to do again what Mr. H. S. Marks had
done better previously. It seems ungrateful to condemn books that but
for renewed acquaintance might have kept the glamour of the past; and
yet, realising how much feeble effort has been praised since it was
"only for children," it is impossible to keep silence when the truth is
so evident.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "KATAWAMPUS" BY ARCHIE MACGREGOR (DAVID
NUTT)]
Alfred Crowquill most probably contributed all the pictures to "Robinson
Crusoe," "Blue Beard," and "Red Riding Hood" told in rhyme by F. W. N.
Bayley, which have been noticed among his books of the "forties." One of
the full pages, which appear to be lithographs, is clearly signed. He
also illustrated the adventures of "Master Tyll Owlglass," an edition of
"Baron Munchausen," "Picture Fables," "The Careless Chicken," "Funny
Leaves for the Younger Branches," "Laugh and Grow Thin," and a host of
other volumes. Yet the pictures in these, amusing as they are in their
way, do not seem likely to attract an audience again at any future time.
E. V. B., initials which stand for the Hon. Mrs. Boyle, are found on
many volumes of the past twenty-five years which have enjoyed a special
reputation. Certainly her drawings, if at times showing much of the
amateur, have also a curious "quality," which accounts for the very high
praise they have won from critics of some standing. "The Story without
an End," "Child's Play" (1858), "The New Child's Play," "The Magic
Valley," "Andersen Fairy Tales" (Low, 1882), "Beauty and the Beast" (a
quarto with colour-prints by Leighton Bros.), are the most important.
Looking at them dispassionately now, there is yet a trace of some of the
charm that provoked applause a little more than they deserve.
In British art this curious fascination exerted by the amateur is always
confronting us. The work of E. V. B. has great qualities, yet any pupil
of a board school would draw better. Nevertheless it pleases more than
academic technique of high merit that lacks just that one quality which,
for want of a better word, we call "culture." In the designs by Louisa,
Marchioness of Waterford, one encounters genius with absolutely
faltering technique; and many who know how rare is the slightest touch
of genius, forgive the equally important mastery of material which must
accompany it to produce work of lasting value.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY." BY R. ANNING
BELL (DENT AND CO.)]
Mr. H. S. Marks designed two nursery books for Messrs. Routledge, and
contributed to many others, including J. W. Elliott's "National Nursery
Rhymes" (Novello), whence our illustration has been taken. Two series of
picture books containing mediæval figures with gold background, by J.
Moyr Smith, if somewhat lacking in the qualities which appeal to
children, may have played a good part in educating them to admire
conventional flat treatment, with a decorative purpose that was unusual
in the "seventies," when most of them appeared.
In later years, Miss Alice Havers in "The White Swans," and "Cape Town
Dicky" (Hildesheimer), and many lady artists of less conspicuous
ability, have done a quantity of graceful and elaborate pictures _of_
children rather than _for_ children. The art of this later period shows
better drawing, better colour, better composition than had been the
popular average before; but it generally lacks humour, and a certain
vivacity of expression which children appreciate.
In the "sixties" and "seventies" were many illustrators of children's
books who left no great mark except on the memories of those who were
young enough at the time to enjoy their work thoroughly, if not very
critically. Among these may be placed William Brunton, who illustrated
several of the Right Hon. G. Knatchbull-Hugessen's fairy stories, "Tales
at Tea Time" for instance, and was frequent among the illustrators of
Hood's Annuals. Charles H. Ross (at one time editor of _Judy_) and
creator of "Ally Sloper," the British Punchinello, produced at least one
memorable book for children. "Queens and Kings and other Things," a
folio volume printed in gold and colour, with nonsense rhymes and
pictures, almost as funny as those of Edward Lear himself. "The Boy
Crusoe," and many other books of somewhat ephemeral character are his,
and Routledge's "Every Boy's Magazine" contains many of his designs.
Just as these pages are being corrected the news of his death is
announced.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "FAIRY GIFTS." BY H. GRANVILLE FELL
(DENT AND CO.)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND RHYMES" BY
MARY J. NEWILL (METHUEN AND CO. 1895)]
Others, like George Du Maurier, so rarely touched the subject that they
can hardly be regarded as wholly belonging to our theme. Yet
"Misunderstood," by Florence Montgomery (1879), illustrated by Du
Maurier, is too popular to leave unnoticed. Mr. A. W. Bayes, who has
deservedly won fame in other fields, illustrated "Andersen's Tales"
(Warne, 1865), probably his earliest work, as a contemporary review
speaks of the admirable designs "by an artist whose name is new to us."
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE ELF-ERRANT" BY W. E. F. BRITTEN
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1895)]
It is a matter for surprise and regret that Mr. Howard Pyle's
illustrated books are not as well known in England as they deserve to
be. And this is the more vexing when you find that any one with artistic
sympathy is completely converted to be a staunch admirer of Mr. Pyle's
work by a sight of "The Wonder Clock," a portly quarto, published by
Harper Brothers in 1894. It seems to be the only book conceived in
purely Düreresque line, which can be placed in rivalry with Mr. Walter
Crane's illustrated "Grimm," and wise people will be only too delighted
to admire both without attempting to compare them. Mr. Pyle is evidently
influenced by Dürer--with a strong trace of Rossetti--but he carries
both influences easily, and betrays a strong personality throughout all
the designs. The "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Otto of the
Silver Hand" are two others of about the same period, and the delightful
volume collected from _Harper's Young People_ for the most part,
entitled "Pepper and Salt," may be placed with them. All the
illustrations to these are in pure line, and have the appearance of
being drawn not greatly in excess of the reproduced size. Of all these
books Mr. Howard Pyle is author as well as illustrator.
Of late he has changed his manner in line, showing at times, especially
in "Twilight Land" (Osgood, McIlvaine, 1896), the influence of Vierge,
but even in that book the frontispiece and many other designs keep to
his earlier manner.
In "The Garden behind the Moon" (issued in London by Messrs. Lawrence
and Bullen) the chief drawings are entirely in wash, and yet are
singularly decorative in their effect. The "Story of Jack Bannister's
Fortunes" shows the artist's "colonial" style, "Men of Iron," "A Modern
Aladdin," Oliver Wendell Holmes' "One-Horse Shay," are other fairly
recent volumes. His illustrations have not been confined to his own
stories as "In the Valley," by Harold Frederic, "Stops of Various
Quills" (poems by W. D. Howells), go to prove.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "SINBAD THE SAILOR" BY WILLIAM STRANG
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1896)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ALI BABA" BY J. B. CLARK (LAWRENCE AND
BULLEN. 1896)]
It is strange that Mr. Heywood Sumner, who, as his notable "Fitzroy
Pictures" would alone suffice to prove, is peculiarly well equipped for
the illustration of children's books, has done but few, and of these
none are in colour. "Cinderella" (1882), rhymes by H. S. Leigh, set to
music by J. Farmer, contains very pleasant decoration by Mr. Sumner.
Next comes "Sintram" (1883), a notable edition of De la Motte Fouqué's
romance, followed by "Undine" (in 1885). With a book on the "Parables,"
by A.L.O.E., published about 1884; "The Besom Maker" (1880), a volume of
country ditties with the old music, and "Jacob and the Raven," with
thirty-nine illustrations (Allen, 1896), the best example of his later
manner, and a book which all admirers of the more severe order of
"decorative illustration" will do well to preserve, the list is
complete. Whether a certain austerity of line has made publishers timid,
or whether the artist has declined commissions, the fact remains that
the literature of the nursery has not yet had its full share from Mr.
Heywood Sumner. Luckily, if its shelves are the less full, its walls are
gayer by the many Fitzroy pictures he has made so effectively, which
readers of THE STUDIO have seen reproduced from time to time in these
pages.
Mr. H. J. Ford's work occupies so much space in the library of a modern
child, that it seems less necessary to discuss it at length here, for he
is found either alone or co-operating with Mr. Jacomb Hood and Mr.
Lancelot Speed, in each of the nine volumes of fairy tales and true
stories (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, and the rest), edited by Mr.
Andrew Lang, and published by Longmans. More than that, at the Fine Art
Society in May 1895, Mr. Ford exhibited seventy-one original drawings,
chiefly those for the "Yellow Fairy Book," so that his work is not only
familiar to the inmates of the nursery, but to modern critics who
disdain mere printed pictures and care for nothing but autograph work.
Certainly his designs have often lost much by their great reduction, for
many of the originals were almost as large as four of these pages. His
work is full of imagination, full of detail; perhaps at times a little
overcrowded, to the extent of confusion. But children are not averse
from a picture that requires much careful inspection to reveal all its
story; and Mr. Ford's accessories all help to reiterate the main theme.
As these eight volumes have an average of 100 pictures in each, and Mr.
Ford has designed the majority, it is evident that, although his work is
almost entirely confined to one series, it takes a very prominent place
in current juvenile literature. That he must by this time have
established his position as a prime favourite with the small people goes
without saying.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE FLAME FLOWER." BY J. F. SULLIVAN
(DENT AND CO. 1896)]
Mr. Leslie Brooke has also a long catalogue of notable work in this
class. For since Mr. Walter Crane ceased to illustrate the long series
of Mrs. Molesworth's stories, he has carried on the record. "Sheila's
Mystery," "The Carved Lions," "Mary," "My New Home," "Nurse Heathcote's
Story," "The Girls and I," "The Oriel Window," and "Miss Mouse and her
Boys" (all Macmillan), are the titles of these books to which he has
contributed. A very charming frontispiece and title to John Oliver
Hobbs' "Prince Toto," which appeared in "The Parade," must not be
forgotten. The most fanciful of his designs are undoubtedly the hundred
illustrations to Mr. Andrew Lang's delightful collection of "Nursery
Rhymes," just published by F. Warne & Co. These reveal a store of humour
that the less boisterous fun of Mrs. Molesworth had denied him the
opportunity of expressing.
Mr. C. E. Brock, whose delightful compositions, somewhat in the "Hugh
Thomson" manner, embellish several volumes of Messrs. Macmillan's
Cranford series, has illustrated also "The Parachute," and "English
Fairy and Folk Tales," by E. S. Hartland (1893), and also supplied two
pictures to that most fascinating volume prized by all lovers of
children, "W. V., Her Book," by W. Canton. Perhaps "Westward Ho!" should
also be included in this list, for whatever its first intentions, it has
long been annexed by bolder spirits in the nursery.
A. B. Frost, by his cosmopolitan fun, "understanded of all people," has
probably aroused more hearty laughs by his inimitable books than even
Caldecott himself. "Stuff and Nonsense," and "The Bull Calf," T. B.
Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy," and many another volume of American
origin, that is now familiar to every Briton with a sense of humour, are
the most widely known. It is needless to praise the literally inimitable
humour of the tragic series "Our Cat took Rat Poison." In Lewis
Carroll's "Rhyme? and Reason?" (1883), Mr. Frost shared with Henry
Holiday the task of illustrating a larger edition of the book first
published under the title of "Phantasmagoria" (1869); he illustrated
also "A Tangled Tale" (1886), by the same author, and this is perhaps
the only volume of British origin of which he is sole artist. Mr. Henry
Holiday was responsible for the classic pictures to "The Hunting of the
Snark" by Lewis Carroll (1876).
Mr. R. Anning Bell does not appear to have illustrated many books for
children. Of these, the two which introduced Mr. Dent's "Banbury Cross"
series are no doubt the best known. In fact, to describe "Jack the Giant
Killer" and the "Sleeping Beauty" in these pages would be an insult to
"subscribers from the first." A story, "White Poppies," by May Kendall,
which ran through _Sylvia's Journal_, is a little too grown-up to be
included; nor can the "Heroines of the Poets," which appeared in the
same place, be dragged in to augment the scanty list, any more than the
"Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Keats's Poems." It is singular that the
fancy of Mr. Anning Bell, which seems exactly calculated to attract a
child and its parent at the same time, has not been more frequently
requisitioned for this purpose. In the two "Banbury Cross" volumes there
is evidence of real sympathy with the text, which is by no means as
usual in pictures to fairy tales as it should be; and a delightfully
harmonious sense of decoration rare in any book, and still more rare in
those expressly designed for small people.
[Illustration:
For them I'd climb, 'most all the Time
And never tear no Clothes!
ILLUSTRATION FROM "RED APPLE AND SILVER BELLS." BY ALICE B. WOODWARD.
(BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)]
The amazing number of Mr. Gordon Browne's illustrations leaves a
would-be iconographer appalled. So many thousand designs--and all so
good--deserve a lengthened and exhaustive eulogy. But space absolutely
forbids it, and as a large number cater for older children than most of
the books here noticed, on that ground one may be forgiven the
inadequate notice. If an illustrator deserved to attract the attention
of collectors it is surely this one, and so fertile has he been that a
complete set of all his work would take no little time to get together.
Here are the titles of a few jotted at random: "Bonnie Prince Charlie,"
"For Freedom's Cause," "St. George for England," "Orange and Green,"
"With Clive in India," "With Wolfe in Canada," "True to the Old Flag,"
"By Sheer Pluck," "Held Fast for England," "For Name and Fame," "With
Lee in Virginia," "Facing Death," "Devon Boys," "Nat the Naturalist,"
"Bunyip Land," "The Lion of St. Mark," "Under Drake's Flag," "The Golden
Magnet," "The Log of the Flying Fish," "In the King's Name," "Margery
Merton's Girlhood," "Down the Snow Stairs," "Stories of Old Renown,"
"Seven Wise Scholars," "Chirp and Chatter," "Gulliver's Travels,"
"Robinson Crusoe," "Hetty Gray," "A Golden Age," "Muir Fenwick's
Failure," "Winnie's Secret" (all so far are published by Blackie and
Son). "National Nursery Rhymes," "Fairy Tales from Grimm," "Sintram, and
Undine," "Sweetheart Travellers," "Five, Ten and Fifteen," "Gilly
Flower," "Prince Boohoo," "A Sister's Bye-hours," "Jim," and "A Flock of
Four," are all published by Gardner, Darton & Co., and "Effie," by
Griffith & Farran. When one realises that not a few of these books
contain a hundred illustrations, and that the list is almost entirely
from two publishers' catalogues, some idea of the fecundity of Mr.
Gordon Browne's output is gained. But only a vague idea, as his
"Shakespeare," with hundreds of drawings and a whole host of other
books, cannot be even mentioned. It is sufficient to name but one--say
the example from "Robinson Crusoe" (Blackie), reproduced on page 32--to
realise Mr. Gordon Browne's vivid and picturesque interpretation of
fact, or "Down the Snow Stairs" (Blackie), also illustrated, with a
grotesque owl-like creature, to find that in pure fantasy his exuberant
imagination is no less equal to the task. In "Chirp and Chatter"
(Blackie), fifty-four illustrations of animals masquerading as human
show delicious humour. At times his technique appears somewhat hasty,
but, as a rule, the method he adopts is as good as the composition he
depicts. He is in his own way the leader of juvenile illustration of the
non-Dürer school.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "KATAWAMPUS." BY ARCHIE MACGREGOR.
(DAVID NUTT)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "TO TELL THE KING THE SKY IS FALLING."
BY ALICE WOODWARD (BLACKIE AND SON. 1896)]
Mr. Harry Furniss's coloured toy-books--"Romps"--are too well known to
need description, and many another juvenile volume owes its attraction
to his facile pencil. Of these, the two later "Lewis Caroll's"--"Sylvia
and Bruno," and "Sylvia and Bruno, Concluded," are perhaps most
important. As a curious narrative, "Travels in the Interior" (of a human
body) must not be forgotten. It certainly called forth much ingenuity on
the part of the artist. In "Romps," and in all his work for children,
there is an irrepressible sense of movement and of exuberant vitality in
his figures; but, all the same, they are more like Fred Walker's idyllic
youngsters having romps than like real everyday children.
Mr. Linley Sambourne's most ingenious pen has been all too seldom
employed on children's books. Indeed, one that comes first to memory,
the "New Sandford and Merton" (1872), is hardly entitled to be classed
among them, but the travesty of the somewhat pedantic narrative,
interspersed with fairly amusing anecdotes, that Thomas Day published in
1783, is superb. No matter how familiar it may be, it is simply
impossible to avoid laughing anew at the smug little Harry, the
sanctimonious tutor, or the naughty Tommy, as Mr. Sambourne has realised
them. The "Anecdotes of the Crocodile" and "The Presumptuous Dentist"
are no less good. The way he has turned a prosaic hat-rack into an
instrument of torture would alone mark Mr. Sambourne as a comic
draughtsman of the highest type. Nothing he has done in political
cartoons seems so likely to live as these burlesques. A little known
book, "The Royal Umbrella" (1888), which contains the delightful "Cat
Gardeners" here reproduced, and the very well-known edition of Charles
Kingsley's "Water Babies" (1886), are two other volumes which well
display his moods of less unrestrained humour. "The Real Robinson
Crusoe" (1893) and Lord Brabourne's (Knatchbull-Hugessen's) "Friends and
Foes of Fairyland" (1886), well-nigh exhaust the list of his efforts in
this direction.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES" BY C. M. GERE
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1893)]
[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON No. 1. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY A.
NOBODY]
Prince of all foreign illustrators for babyland is M. Boutet de Monvel,
whose works deserve an exhaustive monograph. Although comparatively few
of his books are really well known in England, "Little Folks" contains a
goodly number of his designs. La Fontaine's "Fables" (an English edition
of which is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
is (so far as I have discovered) the only important volume reprinted
with English text. Possibly his "Jeanne d'Arc" ought not to be named
among children's books, yet the exquisite drawing of its children and
the unique splendour the artist has imparted to simple colour-printing,
endear it to little ones no less than adults. But it would be absurd to
suppose that readers of THE STUDIO do not know this masterpiece of its
class, a book no artistic household can possibly afford to be
without. Earlier books by M. de Monvel, which show him in his most
engaging mood (the mood in the illustration from "Little Folks" here
reproduced), are "Vieilles Chansons et Rondes," by Ch. M. Widor, "La
Civilité Puérile et Honnête," and "Chansons de France pour les Petits
Français." Despite their entirely different characterisation of the
child, and a much stronger grasp of the principles of decorative
composition, these delightful designs are more nearly akin to those of
Miss Kate Greenaway than are any others published in Europe or America.
Yet M. de Monvel is not only absolutely French in his types and costumes
but in the movement and expression of his serious little people, who
play with a certain demure gaiety that those who have watched French
children in the Gardens of the Luxembourg or Tuileries, or a French
seaside resort, know to be absolutely truthful. For the Gallic _bébé_
certainly seems less "rampageous" than the English urchin. A certain
daintiness of movement and timidity in the boys especially adds a grace
of its own to the games of French children which is not without its
peculiar charm. This is singularly well caught in M. de Monvel's
delicious drawings, where naïvely symmetrical arrangement and a most
admirable simplicity of colour are combined. Indeed, of all non-English
artists who address the little people, he alone has the inmost secret of
combining realistic drawing with sumptuous effects in conventional
decoration.
[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON--No. 2. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY
A. NOBODY]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "ADVENTURES IN TOY LAND" BY ALICE B.
WOODWARD (BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "PRINCE BOOHOO" BY GORDON BROWNE
(GARDNER, DARTON AND CO. 1897)]
The work of the Danish illustrator, Lorenz Froelich, is almost as
familiar in English as in Continental nurseries, yet his name is often
absent from the title-pages of books containing his drawings. Perhaps
those attributed to him formally that are most likely to be known by
British readers are in "When I was a Little Girl" and "Nine Years Old"
(Macmillan), but, unless memory is treacherous, one remembers toy-books
in colours (published by Messrs. Nelson and others), that were obviously
from his designs. A little known French book, "Le Royaume des
Gourmands," exhibits the artist in a more fanciful aspect, where he
makes a far better show than in some of his ultra-pretty realistic
studies. Other French volumes, "Histoire d'un Bouchée de Pain," "Lili à
la Campagne," "La Journée de Mademoiselle Lili," and the "Alphabet de
Mademoiselle Lili," may possibly be the original sources whence the
blocks were borrowed and adapted to English text. But the veteran
illustrator has done far too large a number of designs to be catalogued
here. For grace and truth, and at times real mastery of his material, no
notice of children's artists could abstain from placing him very high in
their ranks.
Oscar Pletsch is another artist--presumably a German--whose work has
been widely republished in England. In many respects it resembles that
of Froelich, and is almost entirely devoted to the daily life of the
inmates of the nursery, with their tiny festivals and brief tragedies.
It would seem to appeal more to children than their elders, because the
realistic transcript of their doings by his hand often lacks the touch
of pathos, or of grown-up humour that finds favour with adults.
The mass of children's toy-books published by Messrs. Dean, Darton,
Routledge, Warne, Marcus Ward, Isbister, Hildesheimer and many others
cannot be considered exhaustively, if only from the fact that the names
of the designers are frequently omitted. Probably Messrs. Kronheim &
Co., and other colour-printers, often supplied pictures designed by
their own staff. Mr. Edmund Evans, to whom is due a very large share of
the success of the Crane, Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway (Routledge)
books, more frequently reproduced the work of artists whose names were
considered sufficiently important to be given upon the books themselves.
A few others of Routledge's toy-books besides those mentioned are worth
naming. Mr. H.S. Marks, R.A., designed two early numbers of their
shilling series: "Nursery Rhymes" and "Nursery Songs;" and to J. D.
Watson may be attributed the "Cinderella" in the same series. Other
sixpenny and shilling illustrated books were by C. H. Bennett, C. W.
Cope, A. W. Bayes, Julian Portch, Warwick Reynolds, F. Keyl, and
Harrison Weir.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "NONSENSE" BY A. NOBODY
(GARDNER, DARTON AND CO.)]
The "Greedy Jim," by Bennett, is only second to "Struwwlpeter" itself,
in its lasting power to delight little ones. If out of print it deserves
to be revived.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION (REDUCED) FROM "THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL." BY
MRS. R. HALLWARD (S.P.C.K.)]
Although Mr. William de Morgan appears to have illustrated but a single
volume, "On a Pincushion," by Mary de Morgan (Seeley, 1877), yet that is
so interesting that it must be noticed. Its interest is double--first in
the very "decorative" quality of its pictures, which are full of
"colour" and look like woodcuts more than process blocks; and next in
the process itself, which was the artist's own invention. So far as I
gather from Mr. de Morgan's own explanation, the drawings were made on
glass coated with some yielding substance, through which a knife or
graver cut the "line." Then an electro was taken. This process, it is
clear, is almost exactly parallel with that of wood-cutting--_i.e._, the
"whites" are taken out, and the sweep of the tool can be guided by the
worker in an absolutely untrammelled way. Those who love the qualities
of a woodcut, and have not time to master the technique of wood-cutting
or engraving, might do worse than experiment with Mr. de Morgan's
process. A quantity of proofs of designs he executed--but never
published--show that it has many possibilities worth developing.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "A, B, C" BY MRS. GASKIN (ELKIN
MATHEWS)]
The work of Reginald Hallward deserves to be discussed at greater length
than is possible here. His most important book (printed finely in gold
and colours by Edmund Evans), is "Flowers of Paradise," issued by
Macmillan some years ago. The drawings for this beautiful quarto were
shown at one of the early Arts and Crafts Exhibitions. Some designs,
purely decorative, are interspersed among the figure subjects. "Quick
March," a toy-book (Warne), is also full of the peculiar "quality" which
distinguishes Mr. Hallward's work, and is less austere than certain
later examples. The very notable magazine, _The Child's Pictorial_,
illustrated almost entirely in colours, which the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge published for ten years, contains work by this
artist, and a great many illustrations by Mrs. Hallward, which alone
would serve to impart value to a publication that has (as we have
pointed out elsewhere) very many early examples by Charles Robinson, and
capital work by W. J. Morgan. Mrs. Hallward's work is marked by strong
Pre-Raphaelite feeling, although she does not, as a rule, select
old-world themes, but depicts children of to-day. Both Mr. and Mrs.
Hallward eschew the "pretty-pretty" type, and are bent on producing
really "decorative" pages. So that to-day, when the ideal they so long
championed has become popular, it is strange to find that their work is
not better known.
[Illustration: "KING LOVE. A CHRISTMAS GREETING." BY H. GRANVILLE FELL]
The books illustrated by past or present students of the Birmingham
School will be best noticed in a group, as, notwithstanding some
distinct individuality shown by many of the artists, especially in their
later works, the idea that links the group together is sufficiently
similar to impart to all a certain resemblance. In other words, you can
nearly always pick out a "Birmingham" illustration at a glance, even if
it would be impossible to confuse the work of Mr. Gaskin with that of
Miss Levetus.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE STORY OF BLUEBEARD" BY E. SOUTHALL
(LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1895)]
Arthur Gaskin's illustrations to Andersen's "Stories and Fairy Tales"
(George Allen) are beyond doubt the most important volumes in any way
connected with the school. Mr. William Morris ranked them so highly that
Mr. Gaskin was commissioned to design illustrations for some of the
Kelmscott Press books, and Mr. Walter Crane has borne public witness to
their excellence. This alone is sufficient to prove that they rise far
above the average level. "Good King Wenceslas" (Cornish Bros.) is
another of Mr. Gaskin's books--his best in many ways. He it is also who
illustrated and decorated Mr. Baring-Gould's "A Book of Fairy Tales"
(Methuen).
Mrs. Gaskin (Georgie Cave France) is also familiar to readers of THE
STUDIO. Perhaps her "A, B, C." (published by Elkin Mathews), and "Horn
Book Jingles" (The Leadenhall Press), a unique book in shape and style,
contain the best of her work so far.
Miss Levetus has contributed many illustrations to books. Among the best
are "Turkish Fairy Tales" (Lawrence and Bullen), and "Verse Fancies"
(Chapman and Hall).
"Russian Fairy Tales" (Lawrence and Bullen) is distinguished by the
designs of C. M. Gere, who has done comparatively little illustration;
hence the book has more than usual interest, and takes a far higher
artistic rank than its title might lead one to expect.
Miss Bradley has illustrated one of Messrs. Blackie's happiest volumes
this year. "Just Forty Winks" (from which one picture is reproduced
here), shows that the artist has steered clear of the "Alice in
Wonderland" model, which the author can hardly be said to have avoided.
Miss Bradley has also illustrated the prettily decorated book of poems,
"Songs for Somebody," by Dollie Radford (Nutt). The two series of
"Children's Singing Games" (Nutt) are among the most pleasant volumes
the Birmingham school has produced. Both are decorated by Winifred
Smith, who shows considerable humour as well as ingenuity.
Among volumes illustrated, each by the members of the Birmingham school,
are "A Book of Pictured Carols" (George Allen), and Mr. Baring-Gould's
"Nursery Rhymes" (Methuen). Both these volumes contain some of the most
representative work of Birmingham, and the latter, with its rich borders
and many pictures, is a book that consistently maintains a very fine
ideal, rare at any time, and perhaps never before applied to a book for
the nursery. Indeed were it needful to choose a single book to represent
the school, this one would stand the test of selection.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "NURSERY RHYMES" BY PAUL WOODROFFE
(GEORGE ALLEN. 1897)]
In Messrs. Dent's "Banbury Cross" series, the Misses Violet and Evelyn
Holden illustrated "The House that Jack Built"; Sidney Heath was
responsible for "Aladdin," and Mrs. H. T. Adams decorated "Tom Thumb,
&c."
Mr. Laurence Housman is more than an illustrator of fairy tales; he is
himself a rare creator of such fancies, and has, moreover, an almost
unique power of conveying his ideas in the medium. His "Farm in
Fairyland" and "A House of Joy" (both published by Kegan Paul and Co.)
have often been referred to in THE STUDIO. Yet, at the risk of
reiterating what nobody of taste doubts, one must place his work in this
direction head and shoulders above the crowd--even the crowd of
excellent illustrators--because its amazing fantasy and caprice are
supported by cunning technique that makes the whole work a "picture,"
not merely a decoration or an interpretation of the text. As a spinner
of entirely bewitching stories, that hold a child spell-bound, and can
be read and re-read by adults, he is a near rival of Andersen himself.
H. Granville Fell, better known perhaps from his decorations to "The
Book of Job," and certain decorated pages in the _English Illustrated
Magazine_, illustrated three of Messrs. Dent's "Banbury Cross"
series--"Cinderella, &c.," "Ali Baba," and "Tom Hickathrift." His work
in these is full of pleasant fancy and charming types.
A very sumptuous setting of the old fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast,"
in this case entitled "Zelinda and the Monster" (Dent, 1895), with ten
photogravures after paintings by the Countess of Lovelace, must not be
forgotten, as its text may bring it into our present category.
Miss Rosie Pitman, in "Maurice and the Red Jar" (Macmillan), shows much
elaborate effort and a distinct fantasy in design. "Undine" (Macmillan,
1897) is a still more successful achievement.
Richard Heighway is one of the "Banbury Cross" illustrators in "Blue
Beard," &c. (Dent), and has also pictured Æsop's "Fables," with 300
designs (in Macmillan's Cranford series).
Mr. J. F. Sullivan--who must not be confused with his namesake--is one
who has rarely illustrated works for little children, but in the famous
"British Workman" series in _Fun_, in dozens of Tom Hood's "Comic
Annuals," and elsewhere, has provoked as many hearty laughs from the
nursery as from the drawing-room. In "The Flame Flower" (Dent) we find a
side-splitting volume, illustrated with 100 drawings by the author. For
this only Mr. J. F. Sullivan has plunged readers deep in debt, and when
one recalls the amazing number of his delicious absurdities in the
periodical literature of at least twenty years past, it seems astounding
to find that the name of so entirely well-equipped a draughtsman is yet
not the household word it should be.
E. J. Sullivan, with eighty illustrations to the Cranford edition of
"Tom Brown's Schooldays," comes for once within our present limit.
J. D. Batten is responsible for the illustration of so many important
collections of fairy tales that it is vexing not to be able to reproduce
a selection of his drawings, to show the fertility of his invention and
his consistent improvement in technique. The series, "Fairy Tales of the
British Empire," collected and edited by Mr. Jacobs, already include
five volumes--English, More English, Celtic, More Celtic, and Indian,
all liberally illustrated by J. D. Batten, as are "The Book of Wonder
Voyages," by J. Jacobs (Nutt), and "Fairy Tales from the Arabian
Nights," edited by E. Dixon, and a second series, both published by
Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. "A Masque of Dead Florentines" (Dent) can
hardly be brought into our subject.
Louis Davis has illustrated far too few children's books. His Fitzroy
pictures show how delightfully he can appeal to little people, and in
"Good Night Verses," by Dollie Radford (Nutt), we have forty pages of
his designs that are peculiarly dainty in their quality, and tender in
their poetic interpretation of child-life.
"Wymps" (Lane, 1896), with illustrations by Mrs. Percy Dearmer, has a
quaint straightforwardness, of a sort that exactly wins a critic of the
nursery.
J. C. Sowerby, a designer for stained glass, in "Afternoon Tea" (Warne,
1880), set a new fashion for "æsthetic" little quartos costing five or
six shillings each. This was followed by "At Home" (1881), and "At Home
Again" (1886, Marcus Ward), and later by "Young Maids and Old China."
These, despite their popularity, display no particular invention. For
the real fancy and "conceit" of the books you have to turn to their
decorative borders by Thomas Crane. This artist, collaborating with
Ellen Houghton, contributed two other volumes to the same series,
"Abroad" (1882), and "London Town" (1883), both prime favourites of
their day.
Lizzie Lawson, in many contributions for _Little Folks_ and a volume in
colours, "Old Proverbs" (Cassell), displayed much grace in depicting
children's themes.
Nor among coloured books of the "eighties" must we overlook "Under the
Mistletoe" (Griffith and Farran, 1886), and "When all is Young"
(Christmas Roses, 1886); "Punch and Judy," by F. E. Weatherley,
illustrated by Patty Townsend (1885); "The Parables of Our Lord," really
dignified pictures compared with most of their class, by W. Morgan;
"Puss in Boots," illustrated by S. Caldwell; "Pets and Playmates"
(1888); "Three Fairy Princesses," illustrated by Paterson (1885);
"Picture Books of the Fables of Æsop," another series of quaintly
designed picture books, modelled on Struwwlpeter; "The Robbers' Cave,"
illustrated by A. M. Lockyer, and "Nursery Numbers" (1884), illustrated
by an amateur named Bell, all these being published by Messrs. Marcus
Ward and Co., who issued later, "Where Lilies Grow," a very popular
volume, illustrated in the "over-pretty" style by Mrs. Stanley Berkeley.
The attractive series of toy-books in colours, published in the form of
a Japanese folding album, were probably designed by Percy Macquoid, and
published by the same firm, who issued an oblong folio, "Herrick's
Content," very pleasantly decorated by Mrs. Houghton. R. Andre was (and
for all I know is still) a very prolific illustrator of children's
coloured books. "The Cruise of the Walnut Shell" (Dean, 1881); "A Week
Spent in a Glass Pond" (Gardner, Darton and Co.); "Grandmother's
Thimble" (Warne, 1882); "Pictures and Stories" (Warne, 1882); "Up
Stream" (Low, 1884); "A Lilliputian Opera" (Day, 1885); the Oakleaf
Library (six shilling volumes, Warne); and Mrs. Ewing's Verse Books (six
vols. S.P.C.K.) are some of the best known. T. Pym, far less
well-equipped as a draughtsman, shows a certain childish naïveté in his
(or was it her?) "Pictures from the Poets" (Gardner, Darton and Co.);
"A, B, C" (Gardner, Darton and Co.); "Land of Little People"
(Hildesheimer, 1886); "We are Seven" (1880); "Children Busy" (1881);
"Snow Queen" (Gardner, Darton and Co.); "Child's Own Story Book"
(Gardner, Darton and Co.).
Ida Waugh in "Holly Berries" (Griffith and Farran, 1881); "Wee Babies"
(Griffith and Farran, 1882); "Baby Blossoms," "Tangles and Curls," and
many other volumes mainly devoted to pictures of babies and their
doings, pleased a very large audience both here and in the United
States. "Dreams, Dances and Disappointments," and "The Maypole," both by
Konstan and Castella, are gracefully decorated books issued by Messrs.
De La Rue in 1882, who also published "The Fairies," illustrated by [H?]
Allingham in 1881. Major Seccombe in "Comic Sketches from History"
(Allen, 1884), and "Cinderella" (Warne, 1882), touched our theme; a
large number of more or less comic books of military life and social
satire hardly do so. Coloured books of which I have failed to discover
copies for reference, are: A. Blanchard's "My Own Dolly" (Griffith and
Farran, 1882); "Harlequin Eggs," by Civilly (Sonnenschein, 1884); "The
Nodding Mandarin," by L. F. Day (Simpkin, 1883); "Cats-cradle," by C.
Kendrick (Strahan, 1886); "The Kitten Pilgrims," by A. Ballantyne
(Nisbet, 1887); "Ups and Downs" (1880), and "At his Mother's Knee"
(1883), by M. J. Tilsey. "A Winter Nosegay" (Sonnenschein, 1881);
"Pretty Peggy," by Emmet (Low, 1881); "Children's Kettledrum," by M. A.
C. (Dean, 1881); "Three Wise Old Couples," by Hopkins (Cassell, 1881);
"Puss in Boots," by E. K. Johnson (Warne); "Sugar and Spice and all
that's Nice" (Strahan, 1881); "Fly away, Fairies," by Clarkson (Griffith
and Farran, 1882); "The Tiny Lawn Tennis Club" (Dean, 1882); "Little Ben
Bate," by M. Browne (Simpkin, 1882); "Nursery Night," by E. Dewane
(Dean, 1882); "New Pinafore Pictures" (Dean, 1882); "Rumpelstiltskin"
(De la Rue, 1882); "Baby's Debut," by J. Smith (De la Rue, 1883);
"Buckets and Spades" (Dean, 1883); "Childhood" (Warne, 1883); "Dame
Trot" (Chapman and Hall, 1883); "In and Out," by Ismay Thorne
(Sonnenschein, 1884); "Under Mother's Wing," by Mrs. Clifford (Gardner,
Darton, 1883); "Quacks" (Ward and Lock, 1883); "Little Chicks" (Griffith
and Farran, 1883); "Talking Toys," "The Talking Clock," H. M. Bennett;
"Four Feet by Two," by Helena Maguire; "Merry Hearts," "Cosy Corners,"
and "A Christmas Fairy," by Gordon Browne (all published by Nisbet).
Among many books elaborately printed by Messrs. Hildesheimer, are two
illustrated by M. E. Edwards and J. C. Staples, "Told in the Twilight"
(1883); and "Song of the Bells" (1884); and one by M. E. Edwards only,
"Two Children"; others by Jane M. Dealy, "Sixes and Sevens" (1882), and
"Little Miss Marigold" (1884); "Nursery Land," by H. J. Maguire (1888),
and "Sunbeams," by E. K. Johnson and Ewart Wilson (1887).
F. D. Bedford, who illustrated and decorated "The Battle of the Frogs
and Mice" (Methuen), has produced this year one of the most satisfactory
books with coloured illustrations. In "Nursery Rhymes" (Methuen), the
pictures, block-printed in colour by Edmund Evans, are worthy to be
placed beside the best books he has produced.
Of all lady illustrators--the phrase is cumbrous, but we have no
other--Miss A. B. Woodward stands apart, not only by the vigour of her
work, but by its amazing humour, a quality which is certainly infrequent
in the work of her sister-artists. The books she has illustrated are not
very many, but all show this quality. "Banbury Cross," in Messrs. Dent's
Series is among the first. In "To Tell the King the Sky is Falling"
(Blackie, 1896) there is a store of delicious examples, and in "The
Brownies" (Dent, 1896), the vigour of the handling is very noticeable.
In "Eric, Prince of Lorlonia" (Macmillan, 1896), we have further proof
that these characteristics are not mere accidents, but the result of
carefully studied intention, which is also apparent in the clever
designs for the covers of Messrs. Blackie's Catalogue, 1896-97. This
year, in "Red Apple and Silver Bells," Miss Woodward shows marked
advance. The book, with its delicious rhymes by Hamish Hendry, is one to
treasure, as is also her "Adventures in Toy Land," designs marked by the
_diablerie_ of which she, alone of lady artists, seems to have the
secret. In this the wooden, inane expression of the toys contrasts
delightfully with the animate figures.
Mr. Charles Robinson is one of the youngest recruits to the army of
illustrators, and yet his few years' record is both lengthy and kept at
a singularly high level. In the first of his designs which attracted
attention we find the half-grotesque, half-real child that he has made
his own--fat, merry little people, that are bubbling over with the joy
of mere existence. "Macmillan's Literary Primers" is the rather
ponderous title of these booklets which cost but a few pence each, and
are worth many a half-dozen high-priced nursery books. Stevenson's
"Child's Garden of Verse," his first important book, won a new
reputation by reason of its pictures. Then came "Æsop's Fables," in
Dent's "Banbury Cross" Series. The next year saw Mr. Gabriel Setoun's
book of poems, "Child World," Mrs. Meynell's "The Children," Mr. H. D.
Lowry's "Make Believe," and two decorated pages in "The Parade" (Henry
and Co.). The present Christmas will see several books from his hand.
"Old World Japan" (George Allen) has thirty-four, and "Legends from
River and Mountain," forty-two, pictures by T. H. Robinson, which must
not be forgotten. "The Giant Crab" (Nutt), and "Andersen" (Bliss,
Sands), are among the best things W. Robinson has yet done.
[Illustration]
"Nonsense," by A. Nobody, and "Some More Nonsense," by A. Nobody
(Gardner, Darton & Co.), are unique instances of an unfettered humour.
That their apparently naïve grotesques are from the hand of a very
practised draughtsman is evident at a first glance; but as their author
prefers to remain anonymous his identity must not be revealed. Specimens
from the published work (which is, however, mostly in colour), and
facsimiles of hitherto unpublished drawings, entitled "The Singing
Lesson," kindly lent by Messrs. Gardner, Darton & Co., are here to prove
how merry our anonym can be. By the way, it may be well to add that the
artist in question is _not_ Sir Edward Burne-Jones, whose caricatures,
that are the delight of children of all ages who know them, have been so
far strictly kept to members of the family circle, for whom they were
produced.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "LITTLE FOLKS." BY MAURICE BOUTET DE
MONVEL. (CASSELL AND CO.)]
The editor of THE STUDIO, to whose selection of pictures for
reproduction these pages owe their chief interest, has spared no effort
to show a good working sample of the best of all classes, and in the
space available has certainly omitted few of any consequence--except
those so very well known, as, for instance, Tenniel's "Alice" series,
and the Caldecott toy-books--which it would have been superfluous to
illustrate again, especially in black and white after coloured
originals.
In Mrs. Field's volume already mentioned, the author says: "It has been
well observed that children do not desire, and ought not to be furnished
with purely realistic portraits of themselves; the boy's heart craves a
hero, and the Johnny or Frank of the realistic story-book, the little
boy like himself, is not in this sense a hero." This passage, referring
to the stories themselves, might be applied to their illustration with
hardly less force. To idealise is the normal impulse of a child. True
that it can "make believe" from the most rudimentary hints, but it is
much easier to do so if something not too actual is the groundwork.
Figures which delight children are never wholly symbolic, mere virtues
and vices materialised as personages of the anecdote. Real nonsense such
as Lear concocted, real wit such as that which sparkles from Lewis
Carroll's pages, find their parallel in the pictures which accompany
each text. It is the feeble effort to be funny, the mildly punning
humour of the imitators, which makes the text tedious, and one fancies
the artist is also infected, for in such books the drawings very rarely
rise to a high level.
The "pretty-pretty" school, which has been too popular, especially in
anthologies of mildly entertaining rhymes, is sickly at its best, and
fails to retain the interest of a child. Possibly, in pleading for
imaginative art, one has forgotten that everywhere is Wonderland to a
child, who would be no more astonished to find a real elephant dropping
in to tea, or a real miniature railway across the lawn, than in finding
a toy elephant or a toy engine awaiting him. Children are so accustomed
to novelty that they do not realise the abnormal; nor do they always
crave for unreality. As coaches and horses were the delight of
youngsters a century ago, so are trains and steamboats to-day. Given a
pile of books and an empty floor space, their imagination needs no
mechanical models of real locomotives; or, to be more correct, they
enjoy the make-believe with quite as great a zest. Hence, perhaps, in
praising conscious art for children's literature, one is unwittingly
pleasing older tastes; indeed, it is not inconceivable that the "prig"
which lurks in most of us may be nurtured by too refined diet. Whether a
child brought up wholly on the æsthetic toy-book would realise the
greatness of Rembrandt's etchings or other masterpieces of realistic art
more easily than one who had only known the current pictures of cheap
magazines, is not a question to be decided off-hand. To foster an
artificial taste is not wholly unattended with danger; but if humour be
present, as it is in the works of the best artists for the nursery, then
all fear vanishes; good wholesome laughter is the deadliest bane to the
prig-microbe, and will leave no infant lisping of the preciousness of
Cimabue, or the wonder of Sandro Botticelli, as certain children were
reported to do in the brief days when the æsthete walked his faded way
among us. That modern children's books will--some of them at least--take
an honourable place in an iconography of nineteenth-century art, many of
the illustrations here reproduced are in themselves sufficient to prove.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "GOULD'S BOOK OF FAIRY TALES." BY
ARTHUR GASKIN. (METHUEN AND CO.)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "LULLABY LAND" BY CHARLES ROBINSON.
(JOHN LANE. 1897)]
After so many pages devoted to the subject, it might seem as if the mass
of material should have revealed very clearly what is the ideal
illustration for children. But "children" is a collective term, ranging
from the tastes of the baby to the precocious youngsters who dip into
Mudie books on the sly, and hold conversations thereon which astonish
their elders when by chance they get wind of the fact. Perhaps the
belief that children can be educated by the eye is more plausible than
well supported. In any case, it is good that the illustration should be
well drawn, well coloured; given that, whether it be realistically
imitative or wholly fantastic is quite a secondary matter. As we have
had pointed out to us, the child is not best pleased by mere portraits
of himself; he prefers idealised children, whether naughtier and more
adventurous, or absolute heroes of romance. And here a strange fact
appears, that as a rule what pleases the boy pleases the girl also; but
that boys look down with scorn on "girls' books." Any one who has had
to do with children knows how eagerly little sisters pounce upon books
owned by their brothers. Now, as a rule, books for girls are confined to
stories of good girls, pictures of good girls, and mildly exciting
domestic incidents, comic or tragic. The child may be half angel; he is
undoubtedly half savage; a Pagan indifference to other people's pain,
and grim joy in other people's accidents, bear witness to that fact.
Tender-hearted parents fear lest some pictures should terrify the little
ones; the few that do are those which the child himself discovers in
some extraordinary way to be fetishes. He hates them, yet is fascinated
by them. I remember myself being so appalled by a picture that is still
keenly remembered. It fascinated me, and yet was a thing of which the
mere memory made one shudder in the dark--the said picture representing
a benevolent negro with Eva on his lap, from "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a
blameless Sunday-school inspired story. The horrors of an early folio of
Foxe's "Martyrs," of a grisly "Bunyan," with terrific pictures of
Apollyon; even a still more grim series by H. C. Selous, issued by the
Art Union, if memory may be trusted, were merely exciting; it was the
mild and amiable representation of "Uncle Tom" that I felt to be the
very incarnation of all things evil. This personal incident is quoted
only to show how impossible it is for the average adult to foretell what
will frighten or what will delight a child. For children are singularly
reticent concerning the "bogeys" of their own creating, yet, like many
fanatics, it is these which they really most fear.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "MAKE BELIEVE." BY CHARLES ROBINSON
(JOHN LANE. 1896)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "JUST FORTY WINKS" BY GERTRUDE M.
BRADLEY (BLACKIE AND SON. 1897)]
Certainly it is possible that over-conscious art is too popular to-day.
The illustrator when he is at work often thinks more of the art critic
who may review his book than the readers who are to enjoy it. Purely
conventional groups of figures, whether set in a landscape, or against a
decorative background, as a rule fail to retain a child's interest. He
wants invention and detail, plenty of incident, melodrama rather than
suppressed emotion. Something moving, active, and suggestive pleases him
most, something about which a story can be woven not so complex that his
sense is puzzled to explain why things are as the artist drew them. It
is good to educate children unconsciously, but if we are too careful
that all pictures should be devoted to raising their standard of taste,
it is possible that we may soon come back to the Miss Pinkerton ideal of
amusement blended with instruction. Hence one doubts if the
"ultra-precious" school really pleases the child; and if he refuse the
jam the powder is obviously refused also. One who makes pictures for
children, like one who writes them stories, should have the knack of
entertaining them without any appearance of condescension in so doing.
They will accept any detail that is related to the incident, but are
keenly alive to discrepancies of detail or action that clash with the
narrative. As they do not demand fine drawing, so the artist must be
careful to offer them very much more than academic accomplishment.
Indeed, he (or she) must be in sympathy with childhood, and able to
project his vision back to its point of view. And this is just a mood in
accord with the feeling of our own time, when men distrust each other
and themselves, and keep few ideals free from doubt, except the
reverence for the sanctity of childhood. Those who have forsaken beliefs
hallowed by centuries, and are the most cynical and worldly-minded, yet
often keep faith in one lost Atalantis--the domain of their own
childhood and those who still dwell in the happy isle. To have given a
happy hour to one of the least of these is peculiarly gratifying to many
tired people to-day, those surfeited with success no less than those
weary of failure. And such labour is of love all compact; for children
are grudging in their praise, and seldom trouble to inquire who wrote
their stories or painted their pictures. Consequently those who work for
them win neither much gold nor great fame; but they have a most
enthusiastic audience all the same. Yet when we remember that the
veriest daubs and atrocious drawings are often welcomed as heartily, one
is driven to believe that after all the bored people who turn to amuse
the children, like others who turn to elevate the masses, are really, if
unconsciously, amusing if not elevating themselves. If children's books
please older people--and that they do so is unquestionable--it would be
well to acknowledge it boldly, and to share the pleasure with the
nursery; not to take it surreptitiously under the pretence of raising
the taste of little people. Why should not grown-up people avow their
pleasure in children's books if they feel it?
[Illustration: THE SPOTTED MIMILUS. ILLUSTRATION FROM "KING LONGBEARD."
BY CHARLES ROBINSON (JOHN LANE. 1897)]
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE MAKING OF MATTHIAS" BY LUCY
KEMP-WELCH. (JOHN LANE. 1897)]
If a collector in search of a new hobby wishes to start on a quest full
of disappointment, yet also full of lucky possibilities, illustrated
books for children would give him an exciting theme. The rare volume he
hunted for in vain at the British Museum and South Kensington, for which
he scanned the shelves of every second-hand bookseller within reach, may
meet his eye in a twopenny box, just as he has despaired of ever seeing,
much less procuring, a copy. At least twice during the preparation of
this number I have enjoyed that particular experience, and have no
reason to suppose it was very abnormal. To make a fine library of these
things may be difficult, but it is not a predestined failure. Caxtons
and Wynkyn de Wordes seem less scarce than some of these early nursery
books. Yet, as we know, the former have been the quest of collectors for
years, and so are probably nearly all sifted out of the great
rubbish-heaps of dealers; the latter have not been in great demand, and
may be unearthed in odd corners of country shops and all sorts of likely
and unlikely places. Therefore, as a hobby, it offers an exciting quest
with almost certain success in the end; in short, it offers the ideal
conditions for collecting as a pastime, provided you can muster
sufficient interest in the subject to become absorbed in its pursuit. So
large is it that, even to limit one's quest to books with coloured
pictures would yet require a good many years' hunting to secure a decent
"bag." Another tempting point is that prices at present are mostly
nominal, not because the quarry is plentiful, but because the demand is
not recognised by the general bookseller. Of course, books in good
condition, with unannotated pages, are rare; and some series--Felix
Summerley's, for example--which owe their chief interest to the "get-up"
of the volume considered as a whole, would be scarce worth possessing if
"rebound" or deprived of their covers. Still, always provided the game
attracts him, the hobby-horseman has fair chances, and is inspired by
motives hardly less noble than those which distinguish the pursuit of
bookplates (_ex libris_), postage-stamps and other objects which have
attracted men to devote not only their leisure and their spare cash, but
often their whole energy and nearly all their resources. Societies, with
all the pomp of officials, and members proudly arranging detached
letters of the alphabet after their names, exist for discussing hobbies
not more important. Speaking as an interested but not infatuated
collector, it seems as if the mere gathering together of rarities of
this sort would soon become as tedious as the amassing of dull armorial
_ex libris_, or sorting infinitely subtle varieties of postage-stamps.
But seeing the intense passion such things arouse in their devotees, the
fact that among children's books there are not a few of real intrinsic
interest, ought not to make the hobby less attractive; except that,
speaking generally, your true collector seems to despise every quality
except rarity (which implies market value ultimately, if for the moment
there are not enough rival collectors to have started a "boom" in
prices). Yet all these "snappers up of unconsidered trifles" help to
gather together material which may prove in time to be not without value
to the social historian or the student interested in the progress of
printing and the art of illustration; but it would be a pity to confuse
ephemeral "curios" with lasting works of fine art, and the ardour of
collecting need not blind one to the fact that the former are greatly in
excess of the latter.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "MISS MOUSE AND HER BOYS." BY L. LESLIE
BROOKE. (MACMILLAN AND CO. 1897)]
The special full-page illustrations which appear in this number must not
be left without a word of comment. In place of re-issuing facsimiles of
actual illustrations from coloured books of the past which would
probably have been familiar to many readers, drawings by artists who are
mentioned elsewhere in this Christmas Number have been specially
designed to carry out the spirit of the theme. For Christmas is
pre-eminently the time for children's books. Mr. Robert Halls' painting
of a baby, here called "The Heir to Fairyland"--the critic for whom all
this vast amount of effort is annually expended--is seen still in the
early or destructive stage, a curious foreshadowing of his attitude in a
later development should he be led from the paths of Philistia to the
bye-ways of art criticism. The portrait miniatures of child-life by Mr.
Robert Halls, if not so well known as they deserve, cannot be unfamiliar
to readers of THE STUDIO, since many of his best works have been
exhibited at the Academy and elsewhere.
The lithograph by Mr. R. Anning Bell, "In Nooks with Books," represents
a second stage of the juvenile critic when appreciation in a very acute
form has set in, and picture-books are no longer regarded as toys to
destroy, but treasures to be enjoyed snugly with a delight in their
possession.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "BABY'S LAYS" BY E. CALVERT (ELKIN
MATHEWS. 1897)]
Mr. Granville Fell, with "King Love, a Christmas Greeting," turns back
to the memory of the birthday whose celebration provokes the gifts which
so often take the form of illustrated books, for Christmas is to Britons
more and more the children's festival. The conviviality of the Dickens'
period may linger here and there; but to adults generally Christmas is
only a vicarious pleasure, for most households devote the day entirely
to pleasing the little ones who have annexed it as their own special
holiday.
The dainty water-colour by Mr. Charles Robinson, and the charming
drawing in line by M. Boutet de Monvel, call for no comment. Collectors
will be glad to possess such excellent facsimiles of work by two
illustrators conspicuous for their work in this field. The figure by Mr.
Robinson, "So Light of Foot, so Light of Spirit," is extremely typical
of the personal style he has adopted from the first. Studies by M. de
Monvel have appeared before in THE STUDIO, so that it would be merely
reiterating the obvious to call attention to the exquisite truth of
character which he obtains with rare artistry.
G. W.
* * * * *
The Editor's best thanks are due to all those publishers who have so
kindly and readily come forward with their assistance in the compilation
of "Children's Books and their Illustrators." Owing to exigences of
space reference to several important new books has necessarily been
postponed.
* * * * *
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "NATIONAL RHYMES." BY GORDON BROWNE
(GARDNER, DARTON AND CO. 1897)]
For Younger Readers
BY MARTHA FINLEY
ELSIE DINSMORE. With illustrations by H. C. Christy. Large 8vo, cloth.
$1.50.
ELSIE AT HOME. Similar in general style to the previous "Elsie" books.
16mo, cloth. $1.25.
BY RAFFORD PYKE.
THE ADVENTURES OF MABEL. For children of five and six. With many
illustrations by MELANIE ELIZABETH NORTON. Large 8vo. $1.75.
BY BARBARA YECHTON.
DERICK. Illustrated. Large 12mo, cloth. $1.50.
BY AMANDA M. DOUGLAS.
CHILDREN AT SHERBURNE HOUSE, 12mo, cloth. $1.50.
NAN. A Sequel to "A Little Girl in Old New York." Illustrated. 12mo,
cloth. $1.50.
BY ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.
GIPSY'S YEAR AT THE GOLDEN CRESCENT. Uniform with the previous volumes
of the same series. Fully illustrated. Large 12mo, cloth. $1.50.
BY ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY.
WITCH WINNIE IN VENICE. With many illustrations. Large 12mo, cloth.
$1.50.
PIERRE AND HIS POODLE. With numerous illustrations. 12mo, cloth. $1.00.
BY BEATRICE HARRADEN.
UNTOLD TALES OF THE PAST. By BEATRICE HARRADEN, author of "Ships that
Pass in the Night," "Hilda Strafford," etc. Illustrated. Cloth. Probably
$1.50.
_The above are published by_
Dodd, Mead & Company, FIFTH AVE. & 21ST
STREET, NEW YORK
* * * * *
Four Capital Books
Aaron in the Wildwoods
A delightful new Thimblefinger story of Aaron while a "runaway," by JOEL
CHANDLER HARRIS, author of "_Little Mr. Thimblefinger and his Queer
Country_," "_Mr. Rabbit at Home_," "_The Story of Aaron_," _etc._ With
24 full-page illustrations by OLIVER HERFORD. Square 8vo. $2.00.
Little-Folk Lyrics
By FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN. HOLIDAY EDITION. A beautiful book of very
charming poems for children, with 16 exquisite illustrations. 12mo.
$1.50.
Being a Boy
By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. With an introduction and 32 capital full-page
illustrations from photographs by CLIFTON JOHNSON. 12mo, gilt top.
$2.00.
An Unwilling Maid
A capital story of the Revolution, for girls, by JEANIE GOULD LINCOLN,
author of "_Marjorie's Quest_," "_A Genuine Girl_," _etc._ With
illustrations. $1.25.
Few recent stories surpass it in the fortunate
blending of vivacity and sweetness and stern
loyalty to duty and tender and pathetic
experiences. It is fascinatingly written and every
chapter increases its delightfulness.--_The
Congregationalist, Boston._
_Sold by Booksellers, Sent, postpaid, by_
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., _Boston_
* * * * *
NEW BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
_Three New Historical Tales by E. Everett Green, Author of "The Young
Pioneers," etc._
A CLERK AT OXFORD, AND HIS ADVENTURES IN THE BARON'S WAR.
With a plan of Oxford in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and a
view of the city from an old print. 8vo, extra cloth. $1.50.
SISTER: A CHRONICLE OF FAIR HAVEN.
With eight illustrations by J. FINNEMORE. 8vo, extra cloth. $1.50.
TOM TUFTON'S TRAVELS.
With illustrations by W. S. STACEY. 8vo, extra cloth, $1.25.
_Two New Books by Herbert Hayens, Author of "Clevely Sahib," "Under the
Lone Star," etc._
AN EMPEROR'S DOOM; OR THE PATRIOTS OF MEXICO.
A tale of the downfall of Maximilian, with eight illustrations by A. J.
B. SALMON. 8vo, extra cloth. $1.50.
SOLDIERS OF THE LEGION.
A tale of the Carlist War. 8vo, extra cloth, illustrated. $1.25.
THE ISLAND OF GOLD.
A Sailor's Yarn. By GORDON STABLES, M. D., R. N., author of "Every Inch
a Sailor," "How Jack McKenzie Won His Epaulettes," etc. With six
illustrations by ALLAN STUART. 8vo, extra cloth. $1.25.
POPPY.
A tale. By MRS. ISLA SITWELL, author of "In Far Japan," "The Golden
Woof," etc. With illustrations. 8vo, cloth extra. $1.25.
VANDRAD THE VIKING; OR THE FEUD AND THE SPELL.
A tale of the Norsemen. By I. STORER CLOUSTON. With six illustrations by
HERBERT PAYTON. 8vo, cloth. 80 cts.
THE VANISHED YACHT.
By E. HARCOURT BURRAGE. Cloth extra. $1.00.
LITTLE TORA, THE SWEDISH SCHOOLMISTRESS, AND OTHER STORIES.
By MRS. WOODS BAKER, author of "Fireside Sketches of Swedish Life," "The
Swedish Twins," etc. Cloth. 60 cts.
A BOOK ABOUT SHAKESPEARE.
Written for Young People. By I. N. MCILWRAITH. With numerous
illustrations. Cloth extra. 60 cts.
ACROSS GREENLAND'S ICEFIELDS.
An account of the discoveries by Nansen and Peary. With portraits of
Nansen and other illustrations. 8vo, cloth. 80 cts.
BREAKING THE RECORD.
The story of North Polar Expeditions by the Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen
Routes. By M. DOUGLASS, author of "Across Greenland's Icefields," etc.
With numerous illustrations. Cloth extra. 80 cts.
_For sale by all Booksellers, or sent prepaid on receipt of price, Send
for complete catalogue,_
THOMAS NELSON & SONS, Publishers, 33 E. 17th St. (Union Sq.), N. Y.
CHILDRENS' BOOKS
=The Blackberries=
Thirty-two humorous drawings in color, with descriptive verses, by _E.
W. Kemble_ the famous delineator of "Kemble's Coons." Large quarto,
9×12, on plate paper; cover in color. $1.50.
=Kemble's Coons=
Drawings by _E. W. Kemble_. A series of 30 beautiful half-tone
reproductions, printed in Sepia, of drawings of colored children and
southern scenes, by E. W. Kemble, the well-known character artist. Large
quarto, 9½×12 inches; handsomely bound in Brown Buckram and Japan
Vellum printed in color. Price, $2.00.
=The Delft Cat=
_By Robert Howard Russell._ Three stories for children profusely
illustrated by F. Berkeley Smith. Printed on hand-made, deckle-edge
linen paper with attractive cover in Delft Colors. Price, 75 cents.
[Illustration]
=Chip's Dogs=
A collection of humorous drawings by the late _F. P. W. Bellew_
("Chip"), whose amusing sketches of dogs were so well known. A new and
improved edition now ready. Large Quarto, 9½×12 inches, on plate
paper, handsomely bound. Price, $1.00.
=The Autobiography of a Monkey=
A laughable conception in 30 full-page and 40 small drawings by _Hy.
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cover in color. Price, $1.25.
=The Tiddledywink's Poetry Book=
Illustrated by _Charles Howard Johnson_. A book of nonsense rhymes by
_Mr. Bangs_, accompanied by most amusing pictures. Large quarto, with
Illuminated covers, 30 full-page illustrations, colored borders to text.
Boards. Price, $1.00.
=The Mantel Piece Minstrels=
_By John Kendrick Bangs._ A most attractive little volume containing
four of Mr. Bangs' inimitably humorous stories, profusely illustrated
with unique drawings by _F. Berkeley Smith_; printed on hand-made,
deckle-edge linen paper, and tastefully bound in illuminated covers.
32mo. Price, 75 cents.
=The Dumpies=
Discovered and drawn by _Frank Verbeck; Albert Bigelow Paine_,
historian. An entertaining tale in prose and verse, as fascinating as
"The Brownies." Large quarto, 8×11, with 130 illustrations and cover in
color. Price, $1.25.
=Tiddledywink Tales=
_By John Kendrick Bangs._ A charming book for children. The drawings by
_Charles Howard Johnson_ are quite in sympathy with the humor of the
book. Full cloth, gilt, 236 pp. 12mo. Price, $1.25.
=In Camp with a Tin Soldier=
_By John Kendrick Bangs._ A Sequel to Tiddledywink Tales. Illustrated by
_T. M. Ashe_, Jimmieboy's adventures in the Camp of the Tin Soldiers are
most amusing. Full cloth, gilt, 236 pp. 12mo. Price, $1.25.
=Half Hours with Jimmieboy=
_By John Kendrick Bangs._ Illustrated by _Frank Verbeck_, _Peter Newell_
and others. Sixteen short stories record the interesting adventures of
the hero with all sorts of folks; dwarfs, dudes, giants, bicyclopædia
birds and snowmen. Full cloth, 112 pp. 12mo. Price, $1.25.
=The Slambangaree=
Ten stories for children by _R. K. Munkittrick_. On hand-made
deckle-edge linen paper. Price, 75 cents.
=In Savage Africa=
_By E. J. Glave_, one of Stanley's pioneer officers. With an
introduction by Henry M. Stanley. Beautifully illustrated with
seventy-five wood cuts, half-tones and pen-and-ink sketches by the
author, _Bacher_, _Bridgman_, _Kemble_ and _Taber_. Large octavo, full
cloth, gilt. Price, $1.50.
=An Alphabet=
_By William Nicholson._ Color plate for each letter in the alphabet.
Popular Edition on stout cartridge paper, $1.50. Library Edition, made
on Dutch hand-made paper; mounted and bound in cloth. Price, $3.75.
_R. H. RUSSELL, New York_
THE WAYSIDE PRESS, SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Advertising page, "Navel" changed to "Naval" (The Naval Cadet)
Advertising page, "facination" changed to "fascination" (his usual
fascination)
Advertising page, "irresistable" changed to "irresistible" (that is
irresistible)
Advertising page, under The Golden Galleon, "Rainy" changed to "Rainey"
(by William Rainey, R. I.)
Page 18, "n" changed to "in" (in comparison with all)
Page 47, "Keat's" changed to "Keats's" (or "Keats's Poems")
Page 54, twice, "De" changed to "de" (gather from Mr. de) (Mr. de
Morgan's process)
Page 70, "Tiddlewink" changed to "Tiddledywink" (Sequel to Tiddledywink
Tales)
Varied hyphenation was retained: woodcuts, wood-cuts and today, to-day
and folklore, folk-lore.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Children's Books and Their Illustrators" ***
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