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although out of date now, are not sufficiently frequent to make it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 Fouque'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 encylopaedia 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 Duerer 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 naive 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 archaeological 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-scenes_ 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 mediaeval 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 AEsop." 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.