Greenaway, Kate

24mo (91 x 85mm.), ONE OF ONLY EIGHT PRINTED COPIES, original green pictorial printed boards, each cover with five Greenaway illustrations gilt bordered and with white ribbon swags, inserted title-leaf, 192 coloured woodblock engravings after Greenaway by Edmund Evans, pink edges, collector's fleece lined watered turquoise silk fold over box, corners of boards chipped, spine worn with some loss, occasional spotting and browning

John Needels, bookplate

see Schuster & Engen 2.1d

On the suggestion of her trusted printer, Greenaway added colour to a number of the 340 tiny vignettes which she had made to compliment the 12 coloured plates for her Birthday Book for Children (1881). Evans then engraved the colour blocks with the intention of publishing these in an album.

Sheets for eight copies of this charming little volume were printed, but for reasons which remain unknown it was not offered to publishers. Confirmation of this came from Edmund Wilfred Evans, the printer's son and successor, in a letter to Maggs Brothers in 1910 which has since been laid in the Meacham copy; a similar (or perhaps the same) letter afterwards accompanied the Houghton copy.

Four of Greenaway's illustrations appear on every page, printed within plain gold borders with decorative gilt floral sprays to adorn the remaining space. Like in the unbound copy from the artist's estate which is now part of the Kate Greenaway collection at the Detroit Public Library, the white ribbons which ornament the cover - presumably intended for the title - remain blank.