National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs Set to Original Music by J.W. Elliott
London: Novello and Company, [1870]. Single volume, measuring 10.25 x 7.25 inches: [8], 111, [1]. Original green pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and black, black coated endpapers, all edges gilt. Tissue-guarded frontispiece and three full-page wood engravings, wood-engraved vignettes throughout text. Light occasional foxing and smudging, small tidemark to lower gutter of first few pages.
First edition of this collection of fifty-four traditional English nursery rhymes and songs, set to original music by J.W. Elliott and illustrated with wood engravings by the Brothers Dalziel. Featured rhymes include “Jack and Jill,” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” “Little Bo-Peep,” “Little Jack Horner,” “Humpty Dumpty,” “Simple Simon,” “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” “Taffy Was a Welshman,” “Georgie Porgie,” and “The Death and Burial of Cock Robin.” The publisher’s preface notes that “among the old favourites a few new aspirants to popularity will be found; but it is hoped that their presence will be considered an additional attraction, and in no way lessen the pretensions of the present volume to be considered a compendium of National Nursery Rhymes.” See Goldman, Victorian Illustrated Books 1850-1870, 235. A very good example of popular Victorian song and illustration.
Price: $200.00