Antique the Old Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Book — Anne Anderson Illustrations, t.c. & e.c. Jack First Edition, Circa 1919–1921, Nantucket Estate

Details

Description

From the same grand old Nantucket summer house that yielded our papier-mâché spectacles case and our well-loved Winnie-the-Pooh comes this: … Read more From the same grand old Nantucket summer house that yielded our papier-mâché spectacles case and our well-loved Winnie-the-Pooh comes this: a first edition of The Old Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Book, illustrated by Anne Anderson — and it is, by some measure, the finest thing we brought back from the island.

Published by T.C. & E.C. Jack, Ltd. of London and Edinburgh, circa 1919–1921 — the first and most desirable edition, before the work passed to Thomas Nelson and Sons and became something rather more ordinary. Anderson's hand is everywhere: luminous full-color plates and black-and-white drawings throughout, all of it inflected with the decorative elegance of the Art Nouveau tradition she made her own. Scottish by birth, exquisite by practice.

There is a page here that stops you. An owl stands sentinel at a small wooden door in the woods, the verse beside it reads: "Mother Goose had a house, 'twas built in a wood, where an owl at the door for sentinel stood." Anderson draws it as though she believed every word. You will too.

An oversized quarto volume, approximately 144 pages. Cloth boards show honest age; the color plates and drawings inside are crisp, clean, and entirely intact. This book came off a shelf by the sea and it shows — in the best possible way. Someone brought it to Nantucket summer after summer. Someone knew.
Sold as shown: book only. Props not included.
A hundred years on and Anne Anderson still had readers. She always will.
PUBLISHER
T.C. & E.C. Jack, Ltd.
London & Edinburgh
DATE
Circa 1919–1921
First edition
ILLUSTRATOR
Anne Anderson
Scottish, Art Nouveau
DIMENSIONS
9.5″W × 11.5″H
Oversized quarto, ~144 pp.
ORIGIN

Private Nantucket estate
CONDITION

Good — aged and well-loved, as a children's book should be
SHOP
Gentlemanly Pursuits See less