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The Chummy Book (10th Year)

Edited by Edwin Chisholm

This is one of three annuals published by Thomas Nelson and Sons for children of different ages. The Chummy Book was for the middle age group. It was advertised for children who can just read, so from 4 to 8 years old, because The Jolly Book was said to be dear to the heart of Boys and Girls from nine to twelve years and The Nursery Book was for the youngest children.

The Chummy Book contained a selection of stories or extracts from stories already published by Thomas Nelson and 16 colour plates, all printed on glossy card on one side only and bound in, each between 8 pages of text printed on rough paper.

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Cover of book (click to enlarge)

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Illustrations to Cinderella by Clifton Bingham

This Annual reproduced the text and 8 illustrations to a story of Cinderella that Blampied had provided to the publisher Odhams, according to letters in the Nelson Archive at Edinburgh University. These drawings were in a strange style with many areas covered with horizontal lines, which had probably been added by Thomas Nelson's rather than by Blampied, as the drawings were not coloured. There were 4 lines of verse underneath each illustration credited at the end to Victorian children's writer Clifton Bingham (Graham Clifton Bingham, 1859-1913). The text may have been derived from a book entitled To Nursery Land with Louis Wain, first published by Raphael Tuck in 1909. The drawings may have originally been drawn in flat colours for Odhams but were re-used in this Annual by Thomas Nelson as line drawings only. The 8 drawings in The Chummy Book are shown below. Four are signed 'Blam'. Nine of the 12 original colour drawings are shown below. They have not been found in any Odhams publication, which was probably a children's magazine, because if they were in a book they would have come to attention by now, unless it was never published. The aspect ratio of the illustrations suggests that they were printed horizontally on a page, so in a book that was wider than it was high. The proofs of the colour illustrations, one of which is shown below, were 380 x 445 mm, so quite large.

The eight line illustrations from the story 'Cinderella' in The Chummy Book (10th Year).

 

 

 

 

Original coloured drawings done for Odhams Press (source unknown)

Coloured proofs of 9 illustrations, 380 x 445 mm, were put up for sale at auction in April 2018. Some drawings appeared again in auction in January 2021. There were 9 coloured proofs which included 6 of the 8 drawings in The Chummy Book and were numbered 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. This indicates that there were at least 12 drawings originally, and numbers 1, 2 and 11 are missing. The coloured proofs are shown below.

 

Proofs of drawings 2 and 3 of the colour illustrations for 'Cinderella' by Clifton Bingham drawn by Blampied for Odhams Press in 1921.

 

Proofs of drawings 5 and 6 of the colour illustrations for 'Cinderella' by Clifton Bingham drawn by Blampied for Odhams Press in 1921.

 

Proofs of drawings 7 and 9 of the colour illustrations for 'Cinderella' by Clifton Bingham drawn by Blampied for Odhams Press in 1921.

 

Proofs of drawings 10 and 11 of the colour illustrations for 'Cinderella' by Clifton Bingham drawn by Blampied for Odhams Press in 1921.

Proofs of drawing 12, one of the colour illustrations for 'Cinderella' by Clifton Bingham drawn by Blampied for Odhams Press in 1921.

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