Music Time: A Book of Easy Tunes. A Puffin Picture Book
West Drayton, Middlesex: Penguin Books, no date, circa 1950. Side-stapled volume, measuring 9 x 7 inches: [2], 26. Original color lithographed wrappers, color and black-and-white illustrations throughout text. Two stamps inside wrappers: “Chace Junior School / City of Coventry Education Committee.”.
Early printing of this illustrated collection of “little pieces you can teach yourself,” number 80 in the Puffin Picture Book series edited by Noel Carrington. The musical compositions grow more challenging as the book progresses, from “The Canary” (“make your tune hop and chirrup like the canary”) to examples of the hornpipe, march, tango, and other popular dances. Illustrator Sheila Jackson would become an influential arts educator and fashion designer, most celebrated for overseeing the costumes for every episode of Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1975). A near-fine example of a classic Puffin Picture Book.
Price: $40.00