A Nursery Companion provided by Iona and Peter Opie, 1980, Vintage Illustrated Children's Literature History Hardback

A Nursery Companion provided by Iona and Peter Opie, 1980, published by Oxford University Press, London. Hardback, 128 pages

This vintage hardback is beautifully illustrated throughout. It is in good condition - the original dust-jacket has some wear - the top edge on the back and the top of the spine both have some small creases; the top of the spine has s small tear. There is a scratch on the back.
Inside there is no writing, tearing, creasing or dog-earing.

30.5cm x 22.5cm x 1.5cm approx.

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Blurb reads:
The best books for children invariably seem to be ones that parents too can enjoy; and in the early years of the nineteenth century, when gaiety and colour were admitted to the nursery, an extraordinary coming-together took place of child and adult. Booklets were produced for the young that were of such quality that even intellectuals warmed to them; and for a while the happy state existed in which the innocent and the sophisticated could share the same literature.
This volume, the celebration of an epoch, brings together the contents of more than a score of these booklets, including classics like The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard, The History of the House that Jack Built, and the alliterative Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation. The traditional tale of the Old Woman and Her Pig appears here with the embellishments that caught the eye of the poet John Clare. The tale of Dame Wiggins of Lee is set with the pictures that Ruskin cherished all his life. The earliest known collection of limericks is reprinted in full for the first time, as also is the collection that inspired Lear to write his 'nonsense'.
Three metrical alphabets are reproduced, with the 'fat, black letters' that Dickens admired. A pictorial grammar very nearly lives up to its title, The Paths of Learning Strewed with Flowers. A rhyming history of the kings and queens of England, although useful as a mnemonic, is not intended to be taken seriously. And the pleasure Georgian youngsters took in these entertainments can be seen in the publications of a ten-year-old and an eleven-year-old, two child-authors subsequently to be renowned as Mary Shelley and Caroline Norton.
The illustrations - of which close on 400 are in colour - establish that, even in the adornment of nursery literature, the Regency deserves it reputation for wit and elegance. Artists such as Robert Cruikshank appreciated absurdity, and knew it was heightened when shown in realistic settings. The careful attention they gave to detail means that a child can look at a page again and again and still find something new.

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