RACKHAM, Arthur; SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles; GOSSE, Edmund

Springtide of Life, the

London: William Heinemann, 1918. Signed Limited Edition [RACKHAM, Arthur, Illustrator]. SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. The Springtide of Life. Poems of Childhood by Algernon Charles Swinburne. With a Preface by Edmund Gosse. London: William Heinemann, [1918]. Edition Deluxe limited to 765 numbered copies signed by Arthur Rackham (this copy being no. 752). Large quarto (11 3/16 x 9 1/8 inches; 284 x 230 mm.). ix, [1], 132, [2] pp. Nine full color tipped-in plates with captioned tissue guards and fifty-two black and white text illustrations. Publisher's quarter vellum over parchment boards. Front cover and spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Original plain white endpapers. Publisher's ink presentation on front free end-paper "For Sylvia Henley - Their guardian of the 'Springtide' With all good wishes from the Publishers of this book. Xmas 1918." Three of the tipped-in color plates (frontispiece and facing pp. 2 and 132) have slight creases, the original binding is somewhat soiled and the spine is rubbed. This is a very reasonably priced copy which was presented by the the publishers to Sylvia Henley - the sister of British aristocrat and socialite Venetia Stanley(1887-1948) who corresponded freely with Prime Minister H.H. Asquith between 1910 and 1915. The signed limited edition contains one extra colored plate that is not found in the trade edition - the frontispiece. The signed limited edition contains one extra colored plate that is not found in the trade edition - the frontispiece. "[Rackham's] drawings for Swinburne's poems of childhood, The Springtide of Life..attracted the admiration of Edmund Gosse, who expressed his appreciation in a preface and told Rackham personally (18th October 1918: 'This volume will not merely be he best book of the present art-season, but a joy to all sensitive people for years and years to come'" (Hudson, Arthur Rackham His Life and Work, p. 108). "As the close of his life approached, Swinburne frequently expressed his intention to extract from his various volumes those poems which were addressed to children, or were descriptive of child-life, and to publish them in a separate collection. He died without having found occasion to carry out this plan, and he left no directions with regard to the way in which it ought to be done.. One reason why Swinburne never brought out such a collection was his failure to find an artist who could interpret to his satisfaction the simplicity and freshness of his verses. We are fortunate in having secured, in Mr. Arthur Rackham, one whose delicate and romantic fancy is in sensitive harmony with Swinburne's, and who understands, no less than he did, how "Heaven lies about us in our infancy." (Edmund Gosse), Latimore and Haskell, p. 48. Riall, p. 133. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 03648

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles GOSSE, Edmund Illustrated Books Literature Nineteenth-Century Literature Poetry

MOVABLE BOOK; REYNAUD, Adeline

Allo! Allo! Bostock

Paris: A. Capendu Editeur, 1900. Scholarly Animals "Living the Good Life" [MOVABLE]. REYNAUD, Adeline. Allo, Allo! Bostock. Grand Album d'Animaux Savants. Paris: A. Capendu-Editeur, [n.d. ca. 1900]. Folio (14 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches; 365 x 240 mm.). Lithograph title-page (recto of page [2] and six full-page colored lever-operated moveable plates, each with text illustrations on verso. Text beneath each illustration. Gray cloth over color pictorial boards. Very scarce. The first plate showing an elephant in top hat and tails talking on the telephone, entitled Allo - Allo! The second plate entitled La Lecon de Lecture, shows two grown cats and two kittens in a classroom, the third plate entitled Un Artiste Original, shows a donkey standing in front of an easel, painting a picture. The fourth plate shows a cat and a dog playing billiards, La Partie de Billard. The fifth plate, La Lecon de Chant, shows a goat holding some sheet music and another animal with a long tail, (a monkey?) wearing spectacles and sitting at a piano. The sixth plate, Le Dentiste has a horse as the dentist in the title and a cow as his patient. This delightful movable has wonderfully vivid plates portraying comical animals as they go about "living the good life". Apart from a few minor and mainly marginal repairs is in excellent condition. The original stitching is a little loose but sound. OCLC locates just one copy in libraries and institutions worldwide: University of Chicago (IL, US). We have only seen one other example of this movable which we sold in 2001. Adeline Reynaud wrote several comic animal stories, including at least two movable books including Allo! Allo! Bostock. Grand Album d'Animaux Savants and Jack l'incorrigible et son chien Puck. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 05358

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: REYNAUD, Adeline Color Printing Movable Books

MOVABLE BOOK; REYNAUD, Adeline

Grand Album D'Animaux Comiques (Big Book of Funny Animals)

Paris: A. Capendu, 1900. Comical Animals Having a Good Time Six Wonderful Movable Plates [MOVABLE BOOK]. REYNAUD, Adeline. Grand Album D'Animaux Comiques. (Big Book of Funny Animals) Texte de Mlle. Adeline Reynaud. Paris: A. Capendu, 1900. Folio (14 x 9 1/2 inches; 356 x 242 mm.). Lithograph title-page (recto of page [2] and six full-page colored lever-operated moveable plates, each with text illustrations on verso. Text beneath each illustration. Publisher's red cloth over color pictorial boards. Rear cover plain. A wonderful example. The Movable Plates: 1. "En Automobile" (A Goat and a Cow, monsieurs Hautcol & Beugle, in the back seat of a car being driven by a lamb) 2. "La Boxe" (A dog and a cat, Job & Mistigris, in a boxing match) 3. "Le Patinage" (A Dog, Tartenpion, skating on ice) 4. "L'Equitation" (A Frog, Crapoto, Riding on a turtle) 5. "La Chasse" (Two rabbit hunter dogs, Finot & Roublard, standing in the field with their rifles) 6. "Le Ludge" Beofin & Bob, a dog and a monkey with their sledges in the snow. Adeline Reynaud wrote several comic animal stories, including at least two movable books including Allo! Allo! Bostock. Grand Album d'Animaux Savants, Grand Album D'Animaux Comiques, and Jack l'incorrigible et son chien Puck. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 05547

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: REYNAUD, Adeline Books in French Color Printing Movable Books

ROBINSON, W. Heath, illustrator

Railway Ribaldry

London: Published by the Great Western Railway, 1935. Heath Robinson's Great Western Railway Centenary Book [ROBINSON, W. Heath]. Railway Ribaldry. Being 96 Pages of Railway Humour. [London]: Published by the Great Western Railway..in the Centenary Year of the Company, 1935. First edition. Quarto (9 11/16 x 7 3/8 inches; 246 x 188 mm.). 96 pp. of black and white illustrations. Original stiff color pictorial wrappers (green, yellow, and black). Yapp edges. Neat early ink signature on upper wrapper. Edges slightly rubbed otherwise a near fine copy. "One of his happiest assaults on the solemn edifices of the business world was his centenary booklet for The Great Western Railway. If any vindication was needed for private management as opposed to state ownership, Heath Robinson's Great Western Railway Centenary Book Railway Ribaldry provided it. That this great railway company should turn to Heath Robinson for its celebratory panegyric shows a splendid sense of proportion. The paper-covered book contains some very funny drawings, including the frontispiece of ‘Mr W. Heath Robinson's Own Private Railway Engine, Not Often Allowed on the G.W.R.', which was hardly surprising for it was a most gimcrack affair with wobbly wooden wheels, yet it still had an air of credibility about it. The other drawings in Railway Ribaldry reveal every kind of probable and improbably thing that could have happened on the Great Western Railway..On every one of the 96 pages in this centenary celebration booklet, there are solemn little men going about their tasks of building the first locomotive, testing the speed of engines, catching cows with a feather-bedded cow-catcher, teaching the meaning of signals to engine drivers (who are mounted on ‘hobby-horse' engines), or ‘Making a Simple Error of Judgement in a Goods Yard'. This last subject was a picture of a high loaded truck, with a man perched on top, about to pass under a very low bridge—and so on. The book sold for one schilling. Heath Robinson's public really got good value for their money" (John Lewis, Heath Robinson, Artist and Comic Genius, p. 176). Beare A12. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 01828

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: Illustrated Books Railroadiana Caricatures Illustrated Books Railroadiana

TRONSENS, Charles; GRIPP, Carlo [&] SATHANIEL

Les Enfans D'Aujourd'Hui

Paris: Chez Aubert & Cie.. 1855. Thirty-Two Fine Hand Colored Lithograph Plates Depicting Children in Various Adult Situations TRONSENS, Charles (pseudonyms of "Sathaniel" & "Carlo Gripp") French caricaturist and illustrator. Les enfans d'aujourd'hui. Paris: Chez Aubert & Cie.. du Journal pour rire, [1855]. First edition. Oblong quarto (6 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches; 157 x 238 mm.). Decorative title-page printed in gold and blue and mounted on pale green paper. Thirty-two fine hand colored lithograph plates all heightened with gum arabic depicting children in various adult social situations. Occasional light marginal soiling otherwise near fine. Contemporary quarter green morocco over purple bead-grain cloth, smooth spine ruled and lettered in gilt, original pink endpapers (inner front hinge strengthened). Scarce with OCLC locating just two copies in libraries and institutions worldwide: Lyon-BIU-LSH and Lyon-INRP (France). Pierre-Charles Tronsens - pseudonyms "Sathaniel" & "Carlo Gripp" (1826-1900). Born in Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrenées, in the Occitaine region of south western France, he began his working life as a lawyers clerk. Passionate about drawing, Tronsens founded Le Carillonneur (The Bell Ringer) in April 1848, a Tarbes satirical weekly for which he wrote and illustrated under the pseudonym "Sathaniel". A few months later, he was noticed by Charles Philipon, who brought him to Paris to collaborate on Le Journal pour rire, in association with Edmond Morin and alongside other young artists such as Bertall, Henri de Montaut and Gustave Doré. In 1857, Tronsens stopped signing his drawings with his real name and began to use the pseudonym "Carlo Gripp". Chosen in allusion to the Gripp waterfall, located about thirty kilometers south of Tarbes, this pen name echoes its Haut-Pyrenean origins while paying tribute to the famous designer Gavarni, who had found his name from another artist after a visit to the Gavarnie circus, also located in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Drawing was not, however, the main professional activity of Tronsens. He became a bank employee in the Lyon-Allemand house in Paris, after having worked for a few years as a clerk at the Tarbes court. On October 29, 1864, Charles Tronsens married Émilie-Délia Morland (1841-1903). One of the wedding witnesses was the photographer Pierre Durat, with whom Tronsens produced in 1867 a series of "Photo-biographies" of celebrities. His bride was the sister of young Valère Morland , who would soon follow in her brother-in-law's footsteps in the Parisian illustrated satirical press. At the end of 1865-beginning of 1866, Carlo Gripp and Valère Morland were among the first cartoonists of The Moon , shortly before André Gill became the emblematic artist of the newspaper. On September 8, 1867, Carlo Gripp succeeded Charles-Lucien Huard as director of L'Image , an illustrated weekly which competed with Journal Amusing. Re-titled Le Paris-Comique from January 1869 and supported by a cheap edition called Le Petit Journal comique, the newspaper ceased to appear on September 10, 1870 before merging the following year with L'Esprit follet. After 1871, Tronsens devoted himself fully to his banking activities and stopped publishing drawings with a few rare exceptions. Tronsens died in Paris in 1900. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 05083

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: GRIPP, Carlo [&] SATHANIEL Color-Plate Books Books in French Caricatures French Caricature

POP-UP

Panoramic Pictures at the Zoo

New York: Sam'l Gabriel Sons & Company, 1900. A Folding Panorama With Six 'Perspective' Plates [POP-UP BOOK]. Panoramic Pictures at the Zoo. New York: Sam'l Gabriel Sons & Company, [ca. 1900]. First? American Edition. Oblong quarto (8 1/8 x 10 1/2 inches; 207 x 267 mm.). Four pages of text and six 'perspective' plates. Panorama-style publishers glazed color pictorial boards, six panels all joined together with original red cloth hinges. The front cover with children riding on an elephant being led by the zoo keeper and lettered "Panoramic Pictures at the Zoo". The rear cover with two American Bison and "No 918/Printed in Germany". All edges stained red. These panorama books were not reading books in the strictest sense, but folding miniature models of a zoo complete with cages. By simply pulling on the tab with the name of the animal the picture transformed into a 3-D vision (with the animals all safely behind bars). The four pages of text: 1. Lion - Tiger - Kangaroo 2. Camel - Zebra - Ostrich 3. Deer - Bear- Monkey 4. Elephant - Wolf - Bison The six color plates: 1. Lions 2. Tigers 3. Camels 4. Zebras 5. Deer 6. Bears According to OCLC there are just two copies of the English version by Raphael Tuck & Sons in libraries and institutions worldwide (both dated 1890) - University of California and University of Delaware. We were unable to locate any of the American (Sam'l Gabriel Sons & Company) edition. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 04129

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: Movable Books

ABC BOOK; VOLTZ, Johann Michael

Bilder-Alphabet Zur Erweekung Des Scharfsinns

Nurnberg: G.N. Renner, 1838. One of the Most Beautiful 'ABC' Books of the Biedermeier Period Johann Voltz's Wonderful Picture Alphabet Depicting the Everyday Life of Country and Townsfolk VOLTZ, Johann Michael. [ABC]. Bilder-Alphabet zur Erweekung des Scharfsinns oder viele Original Darstellungen, nach jedem Buchstaben in 24 Gemälden. Eine neue Bilderlust herausgegeben für Kleine und Grosse. Schwarze und illum Ausgabe. Nürnberg: G.N. Renner, ca. 1838. Translation: "Picture alphabet to awaken the intellect; or many original depictions, after each letter in 24 paintings. A new joy in pictures for young and old. Black and colored edition." Folio (13 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches; 337 x 238 mm.). Complete with the pictorial hand colored lithograph title-page and twenty four magnificent hand colored lithograph plates, all heightened with gum arabic. Two lithographed leaves of text at end. Twenty-seven leaves complete. Plates "I" and "J" are combined on one plate which has the date MDCCCXXXVIII - the letter "Y" was left out by Voltz. Mid twentieth century quarter black calf with black calf corners over patterned boards. Smooth spine, plain endpapers. An exceptionally fine and clean copy with just some 'color bleed' showing on the verso of the plates only. Exceptionally rare hand colored alphabet by Johann Michael Voltz (1784-1858). Each plate represents a letter of the alphabet with numerous objects and actions beginning with the relevant letter, two tables at the back list the words applying to each plate. Extraordinarily rare series of ABC tables, which are counted among the most beautiful ABC books of the Biedermeier period, in the hand colored edition on thick paper. The finely executed, magnificently colored and partly washed plates represent alphabetical search images in which the individual objects and people, each beginning with the same letter, have been combined to form large, colorful, colorful and partly whimsical scenes rich in figures. "The idyllic-realistic children's book illustrations by Voltz describe scenes from bourgeois and rural life in an idealized way, which, despite all idealization, provide an insight into the life of these classes" (H. Herbst in LKJ IV, p.533). The Biedermeier period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and ended with the onset of the Revolutions of 1848. OCLC locates just two copies in libraries and institutions worldwide: Princeton University (NJ,US); Staatsbibloithek Zu Berlin (Germany). Braunschweig University Library have an uncolored copy. Hauswedell 55 (with color); Düsterdieck 666 (black and white edition bound without the 2 ll. text). Stuck-Villa II, 10. Not in Wegehaupt Alte Deutche Kinderbücher band I-IV; Rümann [Old Children's Books]; Brunken, Hurrelmann & Pech Handbuch zur Kinder, Schug Die Bilderwelt im Kinderbuch or Pressler Schöne alte Kinderbücher. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 05347

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: VOLTZ, Johann Michael Color-Plate Books Books in German Caricatures Alphabet

WAIN, Louis; GALE, Norman (text)

Frolics in Catland

London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd. 1905. Onward, For Kitten and Country Furry Fun For All WAIN, Louis. Frolics in Catland. Father Tuck's "Travels in Fairyland" No. 9174. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd. n.d. [c. 1905?]. First 'Untearable' edition. Oblong quarto (8 5/8 x 10 3/4 in; 220 x 273 mm). [28] pp. With eight full-page and numerous color text illustrations. Verses by Norman Gale. Quarter red cloth over color pictorial paper glazed boards. Pictorial endpapers printed in blue and orange. Child's neat signature dated 1918 to ownership page. Inner hinges expertly strengthened. Some light wear to corners, otherwise a remarkably good example of this rare title. At the end of the nineteenth century, Louis Wain (1860-1939), the Edwardian cat artist who went mad, became a household name as an illustrator of cats, whom he depicted in all sorts of activities, from skating and playing cricket to driving motor cars, attending dances, and playing musical instruments. "He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves" (H.G. Wells). "From 1883, Wain began to draw cats as they had never been drawn before, cats in humorous guises, in human situations, but always beautifully handled..[a]lthough he was sometimes forced to draw dogs before he became well-known!" (Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914). Not in Dale. Unrecorded by Wood. Contents: Conrad's Croquet; The Plucky Cricketer; [Two Cats Playing Tennis]; The Winner; [Two Cats Playing Golf]; Dairy Down Golf Club; Amelia Mlik; Augustus Purd; Tramping Ted; [Two Cats Rowing a Boat]; Camilla Clott; [Two Cats Picking Flowers]; Wooden Bricks; The Poor Bugler; [Two Cat Brass Band]; Jake; [Two Musical Cats]; Pippina Joy; Signor Whiskerando Kat; Velvina Fox; Devoted Dandy; {Two Cats Singing a Comical Duet]; Tomto; [Two Members of the Famous Band]; Fernand and Tarina Tab. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 04805

Catalogue: Children's Books

Keywords: GALE, Norman (text) Illustrated Books Color Printing Cats