Toy books were illustrated children's books that became popular in England's
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. The earliest toy books were typically paperbound, with six illustrated pages and sold for
sixpence; larger and more elaborate editions became popular later in the century. In the mid-19th century
picture book
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
s began to be made for children, with illustrations dominating the text rather than supplementing the text.
The earliest toy books were hand painted, but in the mid-19th century London publishing house
Dean & Son
Dean & Son was a 19th-century London publishing firm, best known for making and mass-producing moveable children's books and toy books, established around 1800. Thomas Dean founded the firm, probably in the late 1790s, bringing to it innovative l ...
began printing toy books using
chromolithography
Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce ph ...
to colour the illustrations.
Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans (23 February 1826 – 21 August 1905) was an English wood-engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. He specialized in full-colour printing, a technique which, in part because of his work, became popular in the mid-19th ...
was the premier engraver and printer of toy books in London from the mid-19th century to the early-20th century, producing books for
Routledge, Warne & Routledge using the wood block printing technique of
chromoxylography. He was instrumental in popularizing children's books through the production of toy books during this period. To illustrate the books he hired and collaborated with
Walter Crane
Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and K ...
,
Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott (; 22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honour. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were pro ...
and
Kate Greenaway
Catherine Greenaway (17 March 18466 November 1901) was an English Victorian artist and writer, known for her
children's book illustrations. She received her education in graphic design and art between 1858 and 1871 from the Finsbury School of ...
—known as the triumvirate of children's toy book illustrators.
Early toy books
The term toy book originated in the 18th century when
John Newbery
John Newbery (9 July 1713 – 22 December 1767), considered "The Father of Children's Literature", was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported ...
began printing 'gift books'—such as ''
A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
''A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer'' is the title of a 1744 children's book by British publisher John Newbery.
History
It is generall ...
'' (1744)—with small toys such as pincushions for girls included in the packaging.
The earliest toy books were picture books bound in paper, of six to eight pages, often left blank on the back, with a small amount of text, and coloured illustrations rarely attributed to illustrators.
[Hunt, pp. 221–222] The books were usually bound in heavy paper; some that were guaranteed to be indestructible were bound in linen and sold for a shilling.
Toy books were often released as a series,
and the most common subjects were popular
rhymes
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
and
tales
Tales may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Tales'' (album), a 1995 album by Marcus Miller
* ''Tales'' (film), a 2014 Iranian film
* ''Tales'' (TV series), an American television series
* ''Tales'' (video game), a 2016 point-and-click adventure ...
.
John Harris took over Newbery's publishing firm at the beginning of the 19th century,
[Zipes, Jack. (1987, 2013) ''Victorian Fairy Tales: The Revolt of the Fairies and Elves''. New York: Routledge np] and within a few years was producing small (4 inches by 5 inches) books, colorfully illustrated, that were meant to amuse children.
[Carpenter, pp. 240-242]
Early toy books, particularly in the 1840s, were hand-coloured often by children apprentices in print-shops, until mechanical
colour printing
Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white
or monochrome printing). Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three ...
became more prevalent, and toward the end of the century children's books became quite elaborate.
In the mid-19th century, the primary publishers of toy books in London were
Dean & Son
Dean & Son was a 19th-century London publishing firm, best known for making and mass-producing moveable children's books and toy books, established around 1800. Thomas Dean founded the firm, probably in the late 1790s, bringing to it innovative l ...
, using popularly coloured
chromolithographs
Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour printmaking, prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to ...
for the illustrations. By the end of the 1850s they published more than 200 titles, each book of equal size, each costing
sixpence.
[Carpenter, p. 537]
The main characteristic of a toy book was that it was a coloured picture book with emphasis on pictures rather than text.
Vicki Anderson, author of ''The Dime Novel in Children's Literature'', writes that toy books were both temptingly colourful and not instructive.
[Anderson, p. 46] The books were inexpensive and often were reprints and condensed versions of existing stories such as fairy tales, which were commonly reprinted as toy books, as were books such as
Defoe Defoe may refer to:
People
*Defoe (surname), most notably English author Daniel Defoe
Places
*Defoe, Webster County, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Other uses
*Defoe (comics), a zombie story
*Defoe Shipbuilding Company, a former ship ...
's ''
Robinson Crusoe
''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...
''.
Later toy books
![Randolph Caldecott collection-page 0066 crop-balance-cenhance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Randolph_Caldecott_collection-page_0066_crop-balance-cenhance.jpg)
Children's illustrated books became fashionable during the Victorian period with an emphasis on the artistic value of the work at a period when the middle and upper classes had funds to spend on books for their offspring. Brightly coloured and well-designed toy books in particular became extremely popular.
[Lear, p. 33]
When the English publishing house
Routledge and Warne contracted with printer
Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans (23 February 1826 – 21 August 1905) was an English wood-engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. He specialized in full-colour printing, a technique which, in part because of his work, became popular in the mid-19th ...
in 1865 to provide toy books for a growing market, the toy books he printed "revolutionized the field of children's books".
[Ray, p. 149] Large print runs, often exceeding 10,000 for first printings, were necessary. Routledge asserted that each title required sales of 50,000 to be profitable.
When the market for toy books exploded, Evans began publishing them himself, choosing and commissioning the artists to design the illustrations.
[McLean, ''Evans''] Walter Crane
Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and K ...
(1845–1905),
Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott (; 22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honour. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were pro ...
(1846–1886), and
Kate Greenaway
Catherine Greenaway (17 March 18466 November 1901) was an English Victorian artist and writer, known for her
children's book illustrations. She received her education in graphic design and art between 1858 and 1871 from the Finsbury School of ...
(1846–1901) are the best known illustrators of late-Victorian toybooks, and "did much to develop the sense, the shape, and the look of the modern picture book".
![Crane's Absurd ABC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Crane%27s_Absurd_ABC.jpg)
Evans considered full colour printing, using the relatively inexpensive technique of
chromoxylography to be well-suited to the simple illustrations in children's books,
He objected to crudely coloured children's book illustrations, which he believed could be beautiful and inexpensive if the print run was large enough.
Toy books that were illustrated by Greenaway, Crane and Caldecott, and engraved and printed by Evans, became popular and remain examples of classically illustrated children's literature.
[ The three illustrators became known as the triumvirate of Victoria toy book illustrators and greatly influenced a younger generation of toy book or small book illustrators such as ]Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was he ...
.
Books such as ''The Diverting History of John Gilpin
''The Diverting History of John Gilpin Shewing how he went Farther than he intended, and came safe Home again'' is a comic ballad by William Cowper written in 1782 in poetry, 1782. The ballad concerns a draper called John Gilpin who rides a Bolt ...
'', published in 1878, became popular because of the quality of the illustrations and printing. ''The Diverting History of John Gilpin'', written by William Cowper
William Cowper ( ; 26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scen ...
and first published in 1785, was illustrated by Caldecott and carefully printed in bright colours by Evans. Each page was illustrated and Caldecott's illustrations were designed to make a reader turn to the next page.
Children's literature scholar Anne Lundin explains that at the end of the 19th century, as toy books became more elaborate, contemporary reviewers said of them, "Art for the nursery has become Art indeed", in contrast to books of a few decades earlier, described as "plain and clumsy to ugliness in their exterior". By 1882 the ''Magazine of Art'' contrasted ornately illustrated contemporary toy books, characterized by the use of quality paper and good colour printing, to earlier 18th century books produced "when expectations were low". The more elaborate toy books, such as Walter Crane's ''The Baby's Opera'', brought higher prices, selling for as much as five shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
s.[Ray, p. 152]
Gallery
File:Hey.diddle.diddle.jpeg, "The spoon runs away with the dish" – a Randolph Caldecott illustration from a nursery rhyme
File:Pied_Piper2.jpg, Kate Greenaway's illustration of the Pied Piper
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (german: der Rattenfänger von Hameln, also known as the Pan Piper or the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany.
The legend dates back to ...
leading the children out of Hamelin
Hamelin ( ; german: Hameln ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
H ...
File:Dean & Son Cinderella surpise picture book.jpg, Dean & Son
Dean & Son was a 19th-century London publishing firm, best known for making and mass-producing moveable children's books and toy books, established around 1800. Thomas Dean founded the firm, probably in the late 1790s, bringing to it innovative l ...
Cinderella surprise picture book
File:Dean & Son Cinderella surprise picture book 2.jpg, Same book, after folding
References
Sources
* Anderson, Vicki. (2005). ''The Dime Novel in Children's Literature''. Macfarland.
* Bodmer, George. (2003). "Victorian Illustrators and their critics". ''Children's Literature''. 31.1, 181–185
* Briggs, Julia, et al. (2008). ''Popular children's literature in Britain''. Aschgate.
* Butts, Dennis. (1995). "The Beginning of Victorianism". in Hunt, Peter (ed). ''Children's Literature: An Illustrated History''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Carpenter, Humphrey, and Mari Prichard. (1984). ''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Desmarais, Robert J. (2006). Randolph Caldecott: ''His Books and Illustrations for Young Readers''. Alberta: Alberta UP.
* Hunt, Peter, et al. (1996). ''International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature''. Routledge.
* Lear, Linda. (2007). ''Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature''. St Martins.
* McLean, Ruari. (2004). "Evans, Edmund (1826–1905)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.
* McLean, Ruari. (1967). "Introduction" in ''The Reminiscences of Edmund Evans''. Oxford University Press.
External links
Toy and Movable (T&M) Books
— instruction regarding use of the Library of Congress Subject Heading
The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a thesaurus (in the information science sense, a controlled vocabulary) of subject headings, maintained by the United States Library of Congress, for use in bibliographic records. LC Subject ...
for current acquisitions
{{Victorian children's literature
Book terminology
Book arts
Children's books