WOODCUTS FOR GOOD BOYS & GIRLS USED BY JOHN NEWBERY AND HIS SUCCESSORS

(Upper Denby, England): The Fleece Press, 2020. decorated paper-covered boards, separate portfolio with an extra cut from 'London Cries' (Thomas Carnan, 1770), and housed in a clamshell box. Miniature Books. miniature book (74 x 74 mm), clamshell box (91 x 95 mm). decorated paper-covered boards, separate portfolio with an extra cut from 'London Cries' (Thomas Carnan, 1770), and housed in a clamshell box. 56, (1) pages. Limited to 250 copies, of which this is one of 75 special copies (only 50 were available for sale). The special edition is joined by a double-sided accordion-fold book of The House that Jack Built, following the original words (and the long s), illustrated by nine of the original ten blocks used by John Newbery in the first ever edition, c. 1750. These HTJB copies have been bound at the Press and are housed in a special box made by Stephen Byrne. A fine copy.



The text is set in 8pt Van Dijck by Nick Gill at Effra Press in York, and printed letterpress at the Fleece Press by Simon Lawrence. The images are printed directly from the eighteenth century blocks once used by John Newbery, Thomas Carnan and Philip Norbury.



"This little book stands as a record of the profound pleasure that I have had in finding, identifying and ensuring the preservation of this astonishing group of blocks, which are now in the Cotsen Children's Library, Princeton University. My thanks are due to David Hounslow, Barry McKay, Sidney Berger, Leo de Freitas and Brian Alderson for their help. The binding papers are based on sheets of Dutch gilt paper in the Berger-Cloonan Collection held by the Cushing Memorial Library, Texas A&M University, with my thanks for the curator, Kevin O'Sullivan."



From the artist's website: "In the tenth letterpress miniature book, Brian Alderson writes about 680 blocks discovered 11 years ago in Devon. They had stayed together for over 250 years, many first being printed by John Newbery in St Pauls Churchyard, around 1750, in the first illustrated childrens books.



Three other printers, Thomas Carnan, Samual Jewkes & Philip Norbury owned and augmented them. There are 10 prints made from the original blocks and the text is set in 8pt Van Dijck; it runs to 60 pages, bound in a replica Dutch gilt paper. Its a really lovely book.