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John's Visit to the Farm
Evelyn [Jane] Sharp
This is the third of three small books of stories for young children that Blampied illustrated in a series of 12. They were reissued in several different editions between 1920 and the 1930s. The style of the first edition of these books was laid out in a letter written by Edwin Jack on 11th June 1918:
We require some illustrations for a small children’s story. Below we give you particulars of what is wanted.
1. Cover design in colours 8¼ by 5¾".
2. Frontispiece in colour 6½ by 4⅞".
We should wish to see sketches of both of the above before finished drawings are made.
3. 16 drawings in line, about half page drawings. The size of our type page would be 6½ by 4⅞". These drawings need not be all of one size or shape. There might be, should you prefer it, two full pages and 12 half pages or a larger number of quite small drawings in place of the half pages. In short, you are left free to illustrate the book in an attractive manner within approximately these limits. The illustrations should be of quite simple type in a fairly bold line so that they will print well on a roughish paper.
We can afford to pay a fee of £15 for these drawings. Will you kindly let us know whether you could accept the commission on these terms?
The fee of £15 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £675 in 2019.
Illustration between pages 32 and 33 (click to enlarge)
The third story that Blampied was commissioned to illustrated, in a letter from Edwin Jack dated 12th December 1918, was John's Visit to the Farm by Evelyn Sharp (1869-1955), who was a noted suffragist as well as a writer of children's fiction.
Blampied's first design for the cover was not liked:
Many thanks for the frontispiece drawing and the cover for John’s Visit to the Farm. The frontispiece drawing promises to be a very pretty illustration. The cover is very striking and original but we do not think it strikes the right note for the book. It does not suggest a visit to a farm. We think you must have something a little more obvious though the design you sent appeals to us from the artistic point of view.
Blampied sent a new design which was accepted on 10th January 1919.
Blampied also illustrated Two Little Scamps and a Puppy by Angela Brazil and Terry and Starshine by Amy Whipple in the same series.
First edition
Bibliography code: NEL-20.1i
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Series:
Year: [1920]
Format: 8vo
Pages: 63
Binding: printed boards backed with cream cloth; book stapled
Size: 213 x 161 mm
Cover: not signed
Dust jacket: may have had one, but not seen
Internal illustrations: Full page colour plate bound in between pages 32 and 33 (see above) plus full page frontispiece in line, decorated title page, 12 full page line drawings and 2 illustrations on half a page
Source of illustration: Original
Price: 1 shilling 3 pence (advert for other titles in series, November 1919)
Printing history: none stated
Printed by: Printed in Great Britain at the Press of the Publisher
Notes: The illustration on the front cover is used only in the first edition.
Cover of first edition (click to enlarge)
Second edition
Bibliography code: NEL-20.1ii
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Series:
Year: [1921]
Format: 8vo
Pages: 63
Binding: cream (or grey) cloth decorated in blue, green and orange with a scene of five children, title and author in black, and a green bar beneath; title vertically in black on spine; decoration of five more children on rear cover (not by Blampied)
Size: 163 x 114 mm
Dust jacket: may have had one, but not seen
Source of illustration: Original
Price: not known
Internal illustrations: Full page colour frontispiece, decorated title page, 12 full page line drawings and 2 illustrations on half a page
Printing history: none stated
Printed by: Printed in Great Britain at the Press of the Publisher
Notes: The decorations on the cover are not by Blampied. A copy issued in grey cloth with the same decorations is shown left. This title and the other two containing illustrations by Blampied have not been seen with a dust jacket in this edition. I have a copy with an inscription dated 1922.
Cover of second edition (click to enlarge)
Variant cover of second edition (click to enlarge)
Third edition
Bibliography code: NEL-20.1iii
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Series:
Year: [1923]
Format: 8vo
Pages: 63
Binding: red or blue cloth decorated in black with a boy and a girl reading a book in a bower; title vertically in black on the spine (not by Blampied)
Size: 162 x 115 mm
Dust jacket: signed Blampied, lower right corner
Internal illustrations: Full page colour frontispiece, decorated title page, 12 full page line drawings and 2 illustrations on half a page
Source of illustration: original
Price: not known
Printing history: none stated
Printed by: Printed in Great Britain at the Press of the Publisher
Notes: The cover design is not by Blampied. I have a copy with an inscription dated 1932, so it was sold in this format for at least 9 years.
Dust jacket of third edition (click to enlarge)
Cover of red version of third edition (click to enlarge)
Fourth edition
Bibliography code: NEL-20.1iv
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Series: Happy Hours
Year: [193?]
Format: 8vo
Pages: 63
Binding: printed boards (see left)
Size: 189 x 129 mm
Cover: not by Blampied
Dust jacket: may have had one, but not seen
Internal illustrations: Full page monochrome frontispiece, decorated title page, 12 full page line drawings and 2 illustrations on half a page
Source of illustration: Original
Price: 9 pence (in back of this volume)
Printing history: none stated
Printed by: Printed in Great Britain at the Press of the Publisher
Cover of fourth edition (click to enlarge)
Notes: The cover design is not by Blampied. I have a copy with an inscription dated 1936.
Fifth edition
Bibliography code: NEL-20.1iv
Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Series: Story-Time Books No. 28
Year: [193?]
Format: 4to
Pages: 63 in title plus 128 and 64
Binding: decorated cloth with design of flowers in blue or white, title of books at top; plain spine; decorated boards with same design of flowerss (see left)
Size: 169 x 128 mm
Cover: not by Blampied
Dust jacket: may have had one, but not seen
Internal illustrations: 15 line illustrations from first edition
Source of illustration: Original
Price: unknown
Cover and title page of fifth edition (click to enlarge)
Printing history: none stated
Printed by: Printed in Great Britain at the Press of the Publisher
Notes: This book contains three children's stories in the series Story-Time Books
: John's visit to the Farm by Evelyn Sharp (No. 28); Margot and the Golden Fish by Amy Steedman (No. 31); and Nick by Queenie-Scott-Hopper (No. 65). They are all bound together into one volume. Each book is separated from the next by thin card which was probably fixed to cloth boards when they were bound singly. I can only find for sale two other books in this series, which contained at least 96 titles. These two other books are single titles, rather than three titles in one volume, so this triple book is rare.