Mother Goose's Melodies for Children, or Songs for the Nursery, with Notes, Music, and an Account of the Goose or Vergoose Family.
New York: Hurd and Houghton, Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1869/1869, 1st, same date; blue cloth with gilt titles and a cat and a spider watching little birds drink, gilt titles and decorations on spine; full page, fine etchings with blank verso, which appear to be all present but no table; music at the back, notes on rhymes, 7x9.25", 186 pp. Juvenile hardback.
A lovely collection of about 150 rhymes. Stephens (1884-1882) was "a prolific artist and excelled as a caricaturist, especially in the humorous delineation of animals." Appleton's Cyclopaedia Rev. 1900. Most of these are active, amusing pictures of clothed animals. In addition to the rhymes and illustrations, the book includes "notes, music, and an account of the Goose, or Vergoose Family."
The book is dedicated to "John Fleet Eliot, the great-great-grandson of Elizabeth Goose..."in acknowledgement of his kindness in supplying the materials from which the account of his and her family has been derived." Scarce in first edition.
CONDITION: Good Minus; March 16, 1870 pencil gift inscription; collector's plate on fixed endpaper, clumsy pasted down spine repair, causing uneven/one loose signatures; wear to extremities, pages very clean and bright. Item #20262
Price: $170.00