Mother Hen and Mary.
New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1954/1952 1st US printing, in green boards with white titles and thick pasted-on plate of brown mother hen and her little chick, "Blackberry Farm Books" appearing on top, author, title, publisher on spine, plain endpapers, bright illustrations facing every page, last page with picture and text about the Farm; in thick blue jacket with die-cut square exposing the plate, and dark green titles, author/title/publisher on spine, plain flaps, description of the series, listed through "Christmas" on the back as well as price (95¢). 5x5.5"; np. Small hardback.
When little Mary sneaks off on adventures Mother Hen cannot concentrate and lay her eggs. What a relief when Ernest Owl opens a school! Very bright clear colours, almost like pochoir. The UK Brockhampton series began in 1949 with Emily the Goat. The McKay US reprints are not in the same order. Six Blackberry Farm books were published in this format with green boards in 1954 including Mother Hen, and two sets of three titles with red boards in 1955, (dates, from library records in Worldcat , may have appeared on later printings) As of this writing, we have eleven in jacket, ask.
CONDITION: Good in Good jacket; no names or other marks, straight, clean, BUT bottom corner corner of cloth board shows faded moisture damage on corner for about 1.5" in affecting title, and this shows on jacket over a larger area and on endpapers and pages as a 1/8" rim along 2" of bottom and sides, no moisture was at or near the plate or spine; otherwise jacket is faded blue as usual with darkened spine and very light wear to top edge, 0.95 price. Item #21021
Price: $45.00