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[CHILDRENS]., The "PRINCE ARTHUR" BATTLEDORE. Price One Penny.
Eastwood: G. R. Barber, (n. d.). Folded: 13.8 cm x 8.7 cm. Unfolded: 13.8 cm x 22 cm. Ca 1840. Not in Osborne, the Spencer Collection Catalogue, nor in Gumuchian. OCLC records but 4 cc. 1 sheet of stiff stock, folded twice vertically, resulting in 3 panels on recto & verso. One panel forms a 'flap', as found on a wallet. Yellow paper, printed in black., primer. Illustrated on recto with bird vignette on flap with printed title, plus 2 half-page medallions per panel: a Chinese Junk of War & Fort at Cawnpore to left, and Fort Cwalior & the Destruction of the Chinese Fleet June 1839 to the right. The interior 2 panels exhibit two alphabet series (Capitals & lower-case in center), irregular alphabets and syllable exercises on right. The flap verso has an 'Evening Prayer'. ¶ According to Tuer, printed cardboard Battledores are "an offshoot of the horn-book. It served a double purpose. In school it was used for teaching children who, between times, played the game of battledore and shuttlecock with it. A "Battledore-boy" was a boy learning his letters. To obtain sufficient stiffness to bear knocking about, the battledore was printed on a double fold of stiff card, with an extra piece lapping over one edge in the old pocket-book fashion." [Tuer. HISTORY OF THE HORN- BOOK, pp. 398-399; see also pp. 409-412, wherein Tuer comments on the practice sentences, "stagger the infant intelligence."].
Offered for US$ 302.50 by: Tavistock Books, ABAA - Book number: 27959.1