Home >> Blampied >> Books >> Methuen >>


Hand-Picked Proverbs

Cecil Hunt, illustrations by Blampied

Horace Cecil Hunt was a journalist, editor, novelist and anthologist. Aftre publishing three books of 'howlers' each year from 1937, Hunt and Blampied moved on to proverbs. Here are some examples:

Fish and guests smell after three days (Danish)

Who goes to bed to save his candle, begets twins (Chinese)

Beauty is potent but money is omnipotent

This was the last collaboration as Blampied was stuck in Jersey from June 1940, when Jersey was occupied by the Germans.



Image of dust jacket



 First edition

Bibliography code: MET-40.1.i

Publisher: Methuen Publishers, London

Series: none

Year: 1940

Format: 4to

Pages: vi; half title, pp 55, 20 ununmbered pages, bound in

Binding: white printed boards with same illustration as on the dust jacket

Size: 192 x 120 mm

Dust jacket signed: no

Internal illustrations: Decorated endpapers, decorated title page, 20 illustrations in sepia bound in, plus 31 line illustrations on the numbered pages, 2 signed Blam

Price: 4 shillings

Printing history: None stated

Printed by: Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome and London

Notes: This is slightly smaller than the three other books. I have a copy dedicated by Cecil Hunt to Bettine Spear dated 5.9.40, so Blampied was trapped in Jersey then by the Germans who has invaded Jersey in June 1940.

On dust jacket: RIPE HOWLERS - Here is a good-tempered, gay little book, which should provide penty of laughs at a time when they are urgently needed, and Blampied's illustrations are ludicrously apt, DAILY MAIL



Image of autographs

Autograph of illustrator (click to enlarge)



Variant edition: MET-40.1.ii A version of the First Edition has been seen which has the 20 plates bound into the book in a different order starting with a frontispiece (before the title page) and an illustration before page 1, but there is no illustration between pages 32 and 33 and only one, rather than two, beteen pages 40 and 41. The order of all the illustrations is different. Otherwise the book is the same as the impression descrbed above. It is not stated to be a second impression, but might be.