Aunt Louisa's Keepsake, Comprising Sing a Song o' Sixpence, Robin Hood & His Merry Men, The Robin's Christmas Eve, The Sea Side.
London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1868. First Edition. Hardcover, 4to, 142pp [ each printed on one side only ], colour plates. original dec. cloth, gilt on upper board. A mid nineteenth century children's book, with two stories and two stories in rhyme, and some splendid full page chromolithographs. Some of the content is rather gruesome by modern standards:
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
By came a jackdaw,
And snapt off her nose.
They sent for the King's doctor,
who sewed it on again,
He sewed it on so neatly, the seam
was never see;
And the jackdaw for his naughtiness
deservedly was slain.
And one of the stories has a Christmas setting. Spine rubbed, discoloured and slightly frayed at head and foot, boards somewhat worn with some damp effect, some damp-discolouration to pastedowns, 2.5 inch top-edge tear (glue-repaired) to one colour plate, short top-edge tear to another plate page, inner side of hinges split but hinges holding, corners worn, endpapers foxed, occasional marks and offsetting to some pages - however, colour plates quite clean and bright ; despite its faults, a solid Good + copy.
'Comprising 'Sing a Song o' Sixpence', 'The Robin's Christmas Eve', 'Robin Hood & his Merry Men' and 'The Sea Side', with twenty-four pages of illustrations, printed in oil colours by Kronheim and Dalziels'. Item #29639
Price: $125.00