Author Archives: Andrea Immel

New Cotsen Gallery Exhibition of Glorious Victorian Toy Books Coming Soon

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Prophets in Israel. London: Ward and Lock, [between 1854 and 1861]. (Cotsen 151755)

“Sixpenny Stunners” is nearly ready to install in the Cotsen public gallery.  It will feature toy books, the fully illustrated pamphlets for children, issued 1860-1900 by the London publishers George Routledge & Son, Frederick Warne, Gall & Inglis, Ward, Lock & Tyler, Darton & Hodge, and Dean & Son Ltd.  Their eye-catching color-printed wrappers in yellow, pink, green and lavender papers cover bible stories, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, verse stories with music, novelties, painting books, and paper dolls.

The pamphlets from each of the firms display distinctive styles of packaging, which also reflect the design challenges of creating strong covers. A common technique is to repeat one of the most memorable text illustrations on the cover to draw prospective purchaser and reader into the story.  Walter Crane’s version of Jack and the Bean-stalk features the same illustration on the cover and the first text page, with some clever variants.  The colorways are different, but so are the text panels in the upper right hand corners.  The one on the cover has been drawn to look like a scroll, while the interior one has a few more flourishes.

Jack and the Bean-Stalk. [London]: George Routledge and Sons, [not before 1882]. (Cotsen 151851)

(Cotsen 151851)

A cover design does not always refer to the contents, like The Book of Quadrupeds clothed in a gorgeous double frame of stylized flowers and vines surrounding a central medallion.  A picture of an animal seems much more appropriate, but the obvious choice was probably ruled out by the technical difficulties of reproducing the wood engravings with all the fine lines and cross-hatching cleanly on the cover.

Book of Quadrupeds. London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., [between 1856 and 1863]. (Cotsen 27320)

(Cotsen 27320)

Pamphlets issued as volumes in a publisher’s series may be bound in covers with a uniform rather than an individual design.  Marcus Ward’s “Royal Illuminated Legends for Great Folk for Lyttel Folke” were all decked out in covers printed in gold that reinterpreted medieval manuscript illumination in a contemporary style.  The series design worked well enough for the ballads and fairy tales, but looks a little out of place on Pocahontas: A Tale of Old Virginia.

Pocahontas : a Tale of Old Virginia. London: Marcus Ward & Co., [1872?]. (Cotsen 150292)

(Cotsen 150292)

Perhaps the most ostentatious are the so-called fairground covers, with the titles composed of fancy display types known as “fairground faces” surrounded by equally ornate borders.   Master Mousie’s Supper Party, a verse tale enlarging upon the familiar proverb “the mice will play while the cat’s way,” was a good candidate for this kind of cover for several reasons.  The full-page color illustrations were so crammed with details that they were probably judged too busy for the cover.  Another equally pressing reason may have been that one of the best pictures–showing the party out of bounds– was a little indelicate.

Master Mousie’s Supper Party. London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, [between 1865 and 1873?]. (Cotsen 15702)

(Cotsen 15702)

It comes as something of a surprise that the names of the printers of the covers, such as Kronheim & Co or Leighton Brothers, appeared in small type below the frame or border. They were considered the stars of the project and were  more likely than the pamphlet’s illustrator to be credited for their contribution—and that could include masters  Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane!

(Cotsen 15702)

“Sixpenny Stunners” will be on display until spring: in the winter, a second selection of covers will rotate into the cases.

 

 

 

Once There Was a Man with a Goat, Cabbage, and Wolf and They Had to Cross a River…

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Lewis Carroll gave his pupils puzzles to make logic and mathematics instruction more interesting.   He might have sprung on them the well-known river crossing problem which goes something like this… There was a man who had to get a goat, cabbage, and wolf across the river in a boat too small to hold all four of them. What was he to do? The goat was sure to eat the cabbage if left alone with it and the wolf the goat if given a chance.  With a little quick thinking, the task can be successfully completed.

People have been solving this problem at least since the 12th century, when an illumination featuring a wolf, a sheep, and a vegetable that looks like kale appears in the Ormesby Psalter.  Since the 12th century, many variations on the river crossing problem have been noted in at different times, places, and sources.

The Schoolmasters Assistant. London: Richard and Henry Causton, (1773). (Cotsen 33112)

Between 1705 and 1801, there were seventeen occurrences with a fox, a goose, and a bag of oats, five for a fox, a goose, and a bag of wheat, and three for the more familiar goat, cabbage, and wolf.  The majority appeared either in Jacques Ozanam’s famous Recreations for Gentlemen and Ladies or well-established school books like Thomas Dilworth’s Schoolmaster’s Assistant, under the heading “pleasant and diverting questions.”

Jeux Nouveaux Réunis. Paris: JJF, [1904]. (Cotsen)

For some time it seems that the goat, cabbage and wolf puzzler had been simultaneously associated with instruction and amusement.  Yesterday I discovered more evidence for that in an unlikely place, a recent acquisition, Jeux nouveaux reunis dating from around 1904.  Four or five Parisian companies involved in making pastimes seem to have partnered to produce a big wooden chest shown below stuffed with 64 entertaining pastimes individually boxed. Le souci du batelier: question du vieux tempts [The boatman’s problem] is the only logic puzzler to be found among all the dexterity and disentanglement puzzles.   The box contains a printed slip with the solution and figures of the goat, cabbage, and wolf on little wire stands and the boatman.

Players who couldn’t work it out in their heads could experiment with the figures plotting a sequence of trips across the river  that  would  preserve  cabbage  and  goat.It’s been speculated that the Jeux nouveaux reunis was a salesman’s sample.  Jerry  Slocum, the great historian and collector of puzzles shows in Puzzles Old and New that dexterity and disentanglement puzzles became an increasingly popular family entertainment in  early twentieth century.  He photographs the box of his copy of  Puzzle Parties (1911) sold by a Connecticut firm which contains many of the same French puzzles in the box Cotsen acquired.  Perhaps boxes were sold in France for puzzle parties as well as for sale overseas.