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قراءة كتاب Banbury Chap Books and Nursery Toy Book Literature [of the XVIII. and Early XIX. Centuries]
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Banbury Chap Books and Nursery Toy Book Literature [of the XVIII. and Early XIX. Centuries]
of Newbury and Marshall’s Children’s Gift Toy Books, and early educational works, which were placed in the South Kensington Museum, in several glass cases. These attracted other collections of rare little volumes, adorned with similar cuts, many of which are from the identical blocks here impressed, notably the “Cries of York,” “Goody Two Shoes,” etc. They are still on view, near the George Cruikshank collection, and during the twenty years they have been exhibited, such literature has steadily gone up to fancy prices.
Charles Knight in his Shadows of the Old Booksellers, says of Newbury, (pp. 233), “This old bookseller is a very old friend of mine. He wound himself round my heart some seventy years ago, when I became possessed of an immortal volume, entitled the history of ‘Little Goody Shoes.’ I felt myself personally honoured in the dedication.” He then refers to Dr. Primrose, Thomas Trip, etc., and adds further on, “my father had a drawer full of them [Newbury’s little books] very smartly bound in gilt paper.” Priceless now would this collection be, mixed up with horn-books—a single copy of which is one of the rarest relics of the olden time.
Chalmer’s in his preface to “Idler,” regards Mr. Newbury as the reputed author of many little chap books for masters and misses.
Mr. John Nichols brings forward other candidates for the honour of projecting and writing the “Lilliputian histories, of Goody Two Shoes, etc.;” and refers to Griffith Jones and Giles Jones, in conjunction with Mr. John Newbury, as those to whom the public are indebted for the origin of those numerous and popular little books for the amusement and instruction of children, which have ever since been received with universal approbation.
The following are two of the identical cuts engraved by John Bewick, and used in the Newbury editions of Goody Two Shoes, London, 1769 to 1771.
It will be seen on contrasting these cuts with the other two, on the following page, from early York editions, how wonderfully even in his early years Bewick improved the illustrated juvenile literature of his day. No wonder when Goldsmith the poet had an interview with Bewick, that delighted with his cuts, he confessed to writing Goody Two Shoes, Tommy Trip, etc. Bewick’s daughter supplied this information.
Early cuts to Goody Two Shoes. |
Here are two early examples of Thomas Bewick. They were used in a York edition of “A Pretty Book of Pictures for little Masters and Misses, or History of Beasts and Birds by Tommy Trip,” etc.
Miss Polly Riding in a Coach, from Tommy Trip. |
The Student, from Tommy Trip. |
There was an American edition of Goody Two Shoes, and is very interesting indeed, having a woodcut frontispiece engraved by Thomas Bewick, and was printed at Worcester, Mass., U.S.A., by Isaiah Thomas, and sold wholesale and retail at his book-store, 1787. A copy of this little book sold in London for £1 16s.
We also give two other specimens from the J. Newbery editions of Tommy Trip and Goody Two Shoes, both engraved by John Bewick.
The Student, from Tommy Trip. |
Margery, from Goody Two Shoes. |
The packmen of the past [see frontispiece of a pack-horse in First Edition only of Bewick’s Quadrupeds, 1790] carried in their packs the ephemeral literature of the day, Calendars, Almanacks, and Chep-Books. The Leicestershire pronunciation to this day at markets is “Buy Chep” for Cheap, hence the Chep-side, or Cheape-or Cheapside; otherwise derivation of Chap Men, or Running, Flying, and other mercurial stationers, peripatetic booksellers, pedlers, packmen, and again chepmen, these visited the villages and small towns from the large printers of the supply towns, as London, Banbury, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. The “History of John Cheap, the Chapman,” “Parley the Porter,” “Stephen of Salisbury Plain,” and other favourite tracts, with John Bewick’s and Lee’s square woodcuts were written by the quaker lady, Hannah More, about 1777, and were first published in broadsheet folio. Some were done by Hazzard, of Bath, others by Marshall, of Bow Lane, Aldermary Church Yard. A most curious collection of chap books did they print, reviving the quaint old “Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green,” “Guy, Earl of Warwick,” “Seven Champions,” “Mother Shipton’s Life and Prophecies,” “Wise Men of Gothan,” “Adam Bell,” “Robin Hood’s Garland,” “Jane Shore,” “Joaks upon Joaks,” “Strapho, or Roger the Clown,” “Whetstone for dull Wits,” “St. George and the Dragon,” “Jack Horner:” and hundreds of ballads, garlands, carols, broadsheets, songs, etc., were in the collection.
The “Great A and bouncing B Toy Book Factory,” was somewhere near Little Britain, the proprietor being John Marshall, who published the famous “Life of a Fly.”