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The House of Arden
E[dith] Nesbit
This is one of 11 dust-jackets designed by Blampied for new editions published in 1923 of novels and stories by E. Nesbit, a prolific and famous children's writer. The panels of nine jackets are pasted into Blamped's personal album of wrappers, two of which are known only from this album. Four more titles by E. Nesbit were later reprinted by Fisher Unwin, but not with a jacket designed by Blampied. At least two of these later titles, The Magic City and The Wonderful Garden, have a jacket signed Nick
, which is the diminuitive used by John Nicolson, a close friend of Edmund Blampied.
The 11 books with jackets designed by Blampied were reissued by T. Fisher Unwin until they merged with Ernest Benn Limited in 1928, who continued to use the same jacket design into the 1940s. While it would be nice to show the first use of the jacket design, the jackets of books for children do not always survive, so I have shown the jacket of the best edition, which may be the Benn edition, if that's all I have. It may not be exactly the same as the first impression, so I have shown the panel of the jacket from Blampied's personal album, which is assumed to be the first impression to use his design. According to notices in the Press the publishers issued a free illustrated booklet in 1923 to advertise the 11 titles in the uniform series.
E. Nesbit (1858-1924) was a writer and socialist. In 1880 she married Herbert Bland and with him was one of the founder members of The Fabian Society. Bland died in 1914 and she married in 1917 Thomas Terry Tucker.
Third impression (1923)
Bibliography code: TFU-23.11
Publisher: T. Fisher Unwin, then Ernest Benn Limited
Series: E Nesbit's Children's Stories
Year: 1923
Format: 8vo
Pages: 349, 16 pp adverts
Binding: Red cloth with title, author and Author of 'The Treasure Seekers'
impressed and picture of two children and old man in chair with bird cage above him; title, author and publisher in gold on spine an impressed image of a girl.
Size: 189 x 133 mm approx
Dust jacket: signed Blam, lower right
Price: 6 shillings in 1923 (from adverts)
Internal illustrations: Frontispiece and 32 line drawings by H.R. Millar
Printing history: First published 1908; 3rd impression in 1923
Printed by: Unwin Brothers, Limited, London and Woking
Notes: The 3rd impression (1923) does not have a colour frontispiece by Blampied. The jacket shown above is the first Blampied edition. No Benn impression has been seen with the Blampied dust jacket.
Dust jacket of the 3rd impression of 1923 (click to enlarge)
Panel of dust jacket from Blampied's album (click to enlarge)