CRANE, Walter (1845-1915); Edmund Evans (Engraves)

[Nursery Rhymes] [Children's Literature] [Color Printing] The Baby's Opera. A Book of Old Rhymes with New Dresses; [offered with:] The Baby's Bouquet. A Fresh Bunch of Old Rhymes & Tunes arranged and decorated by Walter Crane; [and with:] The Baby's Own Aesop, Being the Fables condensed in Rhyme with Portable Morals Pictorially Pointed by Walter Crane

London: Frederick Warne, n.d. / n.d. / n.d. Pictorial Boards. A beautifully preserved set of the so-called Triplets, three separately issued companion volumes, one of the most charming collections of children's songs and nursery rhymes set to music. Early issues (but see Unglow and Engen), all engraved and printed by Edmund Evans and uncommon in original dust jackets. Square crown 8vos (176 x 187mm): [2],4-55; [8],9-56; [8],9-55,[1]pp, beautifully patterned and illustrated throughout with intricate border designs and full-page plates in woodblock colors, influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, Japanese prints, and the incipient arts and crafts movement. Opera: Publisher's cream cloth-backed terracotta pictorial boards, spine lettered in black; matching dust jacket. With sheet music to a host of favorite nursery rhymes (including "My Lady's Garden," "I Saw Three Ships," "Three Blind Mice," "Baa! Baa! Black Sheep," and "London Bridge"), selected and arranged by Lucy Crane, Walter Crane's sister. Bouquet: Publisher's terracotta cloth-backed olive green pictorial boards lettered in orange, forest green cupid fleur-de-lys patterned end papers; matching dust jacket. Aesop: Publisher's mint green cloth-backed pictorial boards lettered in burgundy, forest green leaf patterned end papers; matching dust jacket. Containing 48 fables, including "The Fox and the Grapes" and "The Dog and the Shadow." Exemplary examples, very light edge wear only, all tightly bound and clean throughout, the jackets fresh and bright (spine panels scarcely toned), with trivial restoration (never involving lettering or design). Scarce as a set. Masse, pp. 30-31 and 36-37. Hürlimann, pp. 202-03 ("marvels of decorative book production for children. . . . for book collectors . . . a constantly increasing value.") Hardie, pp. 274-75. Ray 244 ("delicate, restrained, and harmonious"). Unglow, pp. 64-65, 69. Engen 63-64, 70-71. Fine / Fine. Item #BB2410

First published (respectively) in 1877, 1878, and 1887 by George Rutledge, according to Masse. But Unglow reports that "Crane parted company with Routledge when they refused to give him a royalty in his new contract" and moved to Warne & Co. in 1876, where he "drew the small, square The Baby's Opera." To which Engen adds: "This book [The Baby's Opera] was the result of Crane rejoining Evans after being rejected for further work by Routledge." As is true of most of Crane's early work, our copies appeared without publication dates or edition statements. Regardless, these are three of the earliest collaborations between Crane and Edmund Evans (1826-1905), the preeminent wood engraver and color printer in Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century. Evans pioneered a printing technique known as chromoxylography, using as many as a dozen color wood blocks for a single image, and critics regard his most important work to be his children's books illustrated by Crane, Kate Greenaway, and Randolph Caldecott, which revolutionized children's publishing. According to Saltman (Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature), Evans printed the "most memorable body of illustrated books for children" in the Victorian era, and the three illustrators, whose works he printed, can be regarded as the "founders of the picture-book tradition in English and American children's books." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $724.00