Children of the Village, a Book of Pictures by Maud Beddington.
London: J. M. Dent and Company, 1903, 1st, tp (although Cotsen has another 1903 copy with gilt titles and borders); engraved by Edmund Evans; light blue cloth with pasted on title plate with children at a crossroads pointing "To Picture Land"; black titles on spine, plain endpapers, all pages, text and pictures, are printed on the same coated paper, single sided, each spread has undecorated text facing a painting and each page is counted in the numbering, thus 68 pp, oblong 14x9.8" Picture Book hardback tall shabby.
Little "prose sketches" of family life seen through the eyes of about twenty farm and village children and illustrated by pale watercolour and ink paintings. Interspersed with the stories are their philosophical musings and dreams of things to come, especially those of Nannie, who goes into service with touchingly high hopes. Beddington was primarily a painter. She sponsored a children's theater and later became a Wm Morris textile designer. She and her sister Beatrice knew many of the famous artists of the day.
CONDITION: Reference copy, bindery has omitted the first 4 stories and inserted duplicates of the second 4 stories; Since we happen to have a nice copy of this book, we have scanned and laid in these pages for reference only. Otherwise in Good condition, boards , paste-on plate, edges, and endpapers darkened and soiled, opens freely but no cracks, pages fairly flat and clean, one plate has 2" margin tear, glued in old repair. Item #20946
Price: $25.00