Item #20319 Christmas Cake in Four Quarters. Mary Anne Barker, Lady.
.

Christmas Cake in Four Quarters

New York: Anson D. F. Randolph and Company, 770 Broadway, corner of Ninth Street, 1872 on title page, first or early US printing; printers, Clay, Sons and Taylor, London, green cloth boards with children pulling giant crackers in gilt, black rules; brown endpapers, title page vignette, and 4 black and white plates, including frontis; 8vo; 304 pp. Juvenile hardback.

"This book, designed for children, contains four different stories describing in some manner Christmas celebrations around the world, in England, Jamaica, New Zealand and India." In this American edition, the plate with the barefoot black cook listed in the Illustration contents as on p 128 for Jamaica, was instead printed as the frontis (not inserted, printed on the title page signature). The author, later Mary Anne Broome (1831 - 1911) was born in Jamaica, educated in England, sailed to New Zealand, became a journalist for the London Times, and lived in various places and circumstances. As well as writing for children, she wrote about the domestic side of living abroad, which all accounts for a spirited, but British colonial outlook. An excellent article on her https://pieceworkmagazine.com/adventures-mary-anne-barker/.

CONDITION: Very Good; contemporary signatures of Mary Corkey and her sister Jane, New London, Conn., on front endpaper and flyleaf, rubs on cloth binding but top board gilt nice, spine a bit dull, extrems bumped and rubbed, light intermittent foxing, opens unevenly but hinges are fine and no webbing shows. Item #20319

Price: $175.00

See all items in Holidays
See all items by ,