Special Collections

The Lord's Prayer : with hymns and illustrations for little children.
[London] : Religious Tract Society, [1870].
[10] leaves, printed on one side only, [6] leaves of col. plates; 27 cm.
Osborne Coll. p. 763.
Six poems about the Lord's Prayer illustrated by six plates printed in colour by J. M. Kronheim $amp; co. A shilling toy book with a hymn on the back cover.
Exhibition Commentary

Roscoe, William (1753-1831)
The butterfly's ball, and the grasshopper's feast.
London : Printed for J. Harris, [1808?]
Page [12]-16 contain the poem: A winter's day. The 14 copperplate engravings are attributed to William Mulready. This copy lacks title page and other preliminaries and is bound in vol. (13 cm.) with binder's title: Butterfly's ball etc., containing, as well as The Butterfly's Ball itself, a number of imitations: The lion's masquerade, 1808; The horse's levee, 1808; The lioness's rout, 1808; The peacock "at home", 1812.
Osborne Coll., p. 76, Moon, M. John Harris's books for youth 726.
Exhibition Commentary

The Rose's Breakfast : illustrated with elegant and appropriate engravings.
London : Printed for J. Harris ..., 1808.
32 p., [8] leaves of hand coloured plates : col. ill. ; 13 cm.
Osborne Coll. p. 928.
This is one of the rarer imitations of The Butterfly's Ball. It does not appear in Moon, M. John Harris's books for youth. The author is not known.
Exhibition Commentary

The Death and Burial of Cock Robin : as taken from the original manuscript in the possession of Master Meanwell.
Lichfield : Printed and sold by M. Morgan; and A. Morgan, Stafford, ca. 1800?
15 p., 1 : illustrated with wood engravings ; 12 cm.
This is an example of a chapbook which has been folded, but not cut and given a cover. It consists of a half sheet and demonstrates clearly how many of the chapbooks were produced: The whole book is printed on one side of a sheet of paper, the paper is then turned "end over" before the reverse side is printed so that each page is backed up correctly. The result of printing with this "work and turn" method is to give two identical pamphlets when the sheet is cut in half.
Exhibition Commentary