Item #1647 The Picture Alphabet. BISHOP, CO.
The Picture Alphabet.
The Picture Alphabet.

The Picture Alphabet.

Houndsditch: Bishop & Co., circa 1830.

First Edition.

A delightful woodcut alphabet. Here are many favourites - the Fox, the Goose, and the Lamb - but where necessary, the publisher’s evidently felt capable of stretching their young audience. Significantly, it includes a 'K' for Kangaroo, revealing how wide-spread and how quickly the appetite for exotic natural history from Australia and the South Pacific had grown. There are also more unusual inclusions such as 'I' for Ibex, and even 'M' for Mermaid. Sadly, inspiration only went so far; here, X is for the Letter X.
The work also includes a child’s ditty: “When school is done, g[o] home loiter not on the wa[y] / Come to school clean and play not by the way.”.

Item #1647

Duodecimo, 12 pp. in total, woodcut illustrations throughout; original green printed wrappers, folded (not sewn) as issued, just lightly chipped at head of front.

Price (AUD): $825.00  other currencies