Wood Engraving Wednesday
We were charmed by these commercial 19th-century wood engravings by an unknown artist and engraver for the children's book A Picnic of Two, published in New York by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1880. We wonder, however, if the young reader would be confused by these illustrations as they have almost nothing to do with the narrative, which is about two rural boys, Tommy and Frank, who play hooky from school one day, but soon come to regret their irresponsibility. There are a few tenuous connections: the main characters are schoolboys (hence the image of a schoolboy, we suppose) and there are a passing references to a cousin John who has gone whaling in the "Arctic Regions" [image 5] and to Uncle James's sailboat [image 6], but other than those, that's it; the remainder of the images are just random. Still, they are charming.
The cover design too bears no relation to the story's narrative, but it does display all the hallmarks of 1870s/1880s American trade cover design with its asymmetry, color stamping, and overlapping visual elements. Our copy also bears a presentation inscription to May from her teacher for Christmas 1880. If only we could ask May what she thought of it.
View more posts with children's books.
View more posts with wood engravings!
