This lovely little girl with her bobbed hair, tee-strap shoes, and bonnet veil is adorable. In her hands are the usual rosary and prayer book given to her for First Communion. There's no indication of her name -- the only thing we know for sure is that she was likely a native of Cleveland. The image itself, minus the"frame" and the outer card folder is 3-3/4" x 5-1/2". In the folder it's 6-1/4" x 8-3/4". View More...
I wish this were the original calendar from 1930, but it's very obvious that it's not given the advertising info on the front for Akron Industrial Metals Co. But it's still very cute and even threw recipients a bone since 1975 and 1930 shared common dates which meant it could actually be used. Fortunately it was not used, or all the pages may have been discarded. Every month shows a bright color image featuring cute kids rendered by Leslie Trhasher and original advertising on the back. The calendar measures 7"x12-1/2" and has a metal hanger at the top. Only fault is a small stain over the "y" ... View More...
I grew up in Akron, Ohio home of the old and beloved Saalfield Publishing Company. The company was known for books in boxes such as this one and also its licensing for Shirley Temple books. Saalfield had novels too for older kids, so we never grew out of them until we weren't kids anymore. This particular box is new to me, but I would have loved it.The box says it contains 20 playbooks for drawing, coloring, picture hunts, riddles, connect the dots, games and mazes. Twenty it may have been, but it ended up housing 22 -- no repeats and no coloring. Fun gift! Measures 6" x 9". Books are clean an... View More...
What a colorful booklet, lots of fun filled with floats. Each one is explained and there's a color photo for each too-- all 122.There's also photos of the queen and her Royal Court. Among the floats are the U.S. Marine Corps, Ohio State Marching Band, Eastman Kodak's It's A Big Big World, Circus Days, Blowing Bubbles, Sesame Street via Chrysler, Dr. Pepper's Shoemaker and the Elves, Playmates Come in All Colors; and Hawaii No Ka Oe thanks to Continental Airlines. The booklet measures 8-1/2" x 11" and has 47 pages. View More...
I love the way this book looks so serious and academic on the outside and all about fun inside. The pages are a rainbow of color --yellow, orange, green, pink, blue and red.The instructions are at the front and the different plane parts follow. You can make eight different flying planes. Book measures 8-1/2" x 12" and is clean and bright with no defects. View More...
This is an interesting piece of ephemera for children fro m Akron Saalfield Publishing. It's sort of a book, but more a booklet with a strange little spin. It's very nice and clean and measures 6"x11" with a bright attractive cover design. The only fault is one flat crease to the bottom back corner. It's amazing that this book survived in such great condition because it was designed as an activity book in which children were encouraged to clip pictures of products from ads in the newspaper and paste them at the appropriate places in the story. Fortunately, this copy survived unscathed! The "... View More...
This pretty little baby gift is bound in white satin fabric with a linen banner edged in eyelet, a satin embroidery of flowers around a cross, and a ribbon with two tiny roses, one pink and one white. The book fits in its box which is also pretty with a textured white paper covering the lid. The book measures 4-1/4" x 6-1/4" and is printed in light blue ink. The onwership blank has not been written in and the pages are clean. There are fourteen prayers in all. View More...
These little booklets are a collector's dream. They're small, cute, colorful and packed with products for the dolls. The booklets measures 3" across and 3-3/4" tall. The two that say Barbie, Kenm and Midge (one blue, one white) contain different items, so each is its own treat. The third booklet contains "exclusive fashions" for Barbie, Ken, and Midge, plus Allen and Skipper. This one's the thickest and has other items in addition to clothing, such as Barbie's Dream House, a Theatet, furniture and more. View More...
What a surprise find this morning! Nine years ago I bought several full years of the newsletters of the Beatrix Potter Society and four booklets like this one filled with papers presented at the Society's Beatrix Potter Lake District Study Conference. All of it is long gone, but somehow this little straggler landed with a bunch of unrelated items. The booklet's articles re these: Lake District Natural History and Beatrix Potter; The Beatrix Potter Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia; Collecting Beatrix Potter; Beatrix Potter Piracies and Sequels; and Bertram Potter and the Scottish... View More...
Cute little person in a very big chair. May be a rocking chair. There are no names on the back and no dates, so I'm guessing this picture was taken around the turn of the 20th century. The Broadway Photo Co. was located at 1150 Broadway, Cleveland, Ohio, but research hit a dead end from the start. The card measures 4-1/4"x6-1/2" and is very nice and clean with no wear to edges View More...
Joshua Smith was no ordinary run-of-the-mill photographer who at this point in his career specialized in photographing children such as this cute little doorstep girl. In 1878 he won a coveted Silver Medal at the Paris Exhibition and in 1883 was elected president of the American Photographers Association. He also wrote many articles on chemicals and photography. There is no date on this photo, but research shows that the address on the back of it --206 North Clark Street, Chicago --was occupied by him from 1876-1886. The cabinet card is in sepia. View More...
This is an interesting item, published for a contest which was advertised around the world. In the U.S. the kit was sent via the local newspapers, in this case the Detroit Times. Oddly, there is no year stated, so I did some research and found a 1932 Syracuse, New York newspaper story about the contest. Then envelope had many small tears, so I taped the edges to stabilize it. Inside here is a card about the contest itself, another one with intricate instructions and four large cards with many, many, many pieces to assemble. The sad part is, though not surprising, only boys were allowed to comp... View More...
The covers of these magazines are a delight with bright colors and a dollop of whimsey. I put them together in one offering not only because they are sequential, but because othere's a story titled Adventures In Candle Street which is a two parter and now both parts are present. The magazine is color limited inside, but somehow that still seems to charm. Readers will find poems, stories, things to make, things to do, and special features such as junior etiquette, how a 10 year opld boy helped save the lives of six people, movie town news. There's even a secton for mothers. Magazines measure 8... View More...
This is a charming paperdoll book with a Japanese flair. There's no date, but the pictures seem to suggest that it comes from the 1940's or 50s. Everything is die-cut, so no scissors necessary. Just pop out the dolls, the clothes, and the accessories and it's time to play. There are four pages filled with items -- I've photographed them all so you can see everything that comes with it. Book measures 7-1/2 x 10-1/2" in beautiful condition. View More...
Technically, yes, this is a book, but when it dates from the 50's it's also ephemeral. Lots and lots of bad things can happen over almost 60 years to an inexpensive book given to kids! It's a rather hard-to-find title which contains three stories about the Disney character, Donald Duck -- Donald Duck's Toy Train; Donald Duck's Adventure; and Donald Duck and the Witch. First edition as per letter "A" found at lower corner of gutter on last page. Book shows mild wear to extremities including a small loss of foil to spine at top and bottom, but is very clean and tightly bound. Former owner's name... View More...
Crisp, beautiful art catalog published to accompany an exhibit held December 6-21, 2006 in association with Sally Hunter Fine Art. The artist, Ernest Howard Shepard, is best known for Winnie the Pooh. He was born in 1879 and died in 1976, but worked well into his 90's. Shepard is associated with a gentle art that portrayed a very English point of view -- the enchanted places of childhood, and the comedy of manners, but, above it all, Winnie the Pooh. Many wonderful examples of his work throughout, each with attribution. Most in black and white, but some color. 32 Pages. Mesures 6-1/2" x 9-3/4... View More...
I bought a handful of these little magazines a week ago and am amazed at how interesting they are. Any issue is an Anglophile's delight. This issue offers the following articles: A Childhood in Bow; Frederick Rogers Bookbinder and Journalist; The Ingles of Limehouse; Satan, Sufragettes and Salvation; The Bethnal Green Tube Disaster; and They Carried the Banner. The latter is about education in poverty stricken neighborhoods. People were binding together to improve things, but chose a name which might be a little .... It was The King Edward Ragged School Youths' Institute and Christian Mission.... View More...
This is a lovely print rendered by Ethel Franklin Botts, a student of the great Howard Pyle, as was Jessie Wilcox Smith. Her style is a bit different though with a hint of a collage look at times. She was very prolific and an important illustrator of the day. I don't know exactly what children's book this print derives from, but I do know that it's an illustration for a James Whitcomb Riley poem. The book was published in 1906. Clearly, this was a page of the book - I purchased it from a long time dealer who salvaged plates from disbound and damaged children'books. He was NOT a breaker. The p... View More...
It's very interesting that the cutest babies are in the older card (1886) and the -- shall we say, odder ones? -- followed the next year. Both cards have the same copy on reverse side, which is devoted to the directions for use. Interesting, too, that this product remains on the grocery shelves today. the pastel card measures 3-1/2"x5" and the other 3-1/2"x5-1/2". Both are clean and nice, though I did re-enforce a corner crease at bottom left on the pastel card with invisible non-browning archival tape. The other card has toned a bit at back. Otherwise they're great. View More...
Tinted French postcards are exquisite and this one is especially charming for Easter. The pretty baby lies peacefully in a bed of flowers while angels in a pink-lit sky dangle an Easter egg on a ribbon to amuse her. A perfect image for spring! The card has not been postally used, nor does it have any writing. It's very clean with just a few tiny spots of isolated edge wear. Will arrive in a plastic sleeve. View More...
