| Limited Edition of
forty copies signed & numbered.
Click on thumbnail for larger image
Distinguished Book Award 2005
|
| Nursery
rhymes are part of a rich oral tradition passed down from parent to
child, long before books were printed expressly for children. The
House That Jack Built is an accumulative rhyme, with a lively cast
of characters, both human and animal, lending itself to art and drama in
equal measure. |
| The original
illustrations were drawn in pen & ink, printed from plates and
individually hand-coloured with watercolours. The animals play
their traditional roles, and the humans play theirs, seen against the
age-old backdrop of an agricultural community. |
|
The design of
the book allows a double page for each object or character, using
diminishing text sizes to accommodate the verse as it grows
longer. Constructing the book with guards, so that each
double page stands away from the spine when open, allows the pictures to
be easily seen, yet maintains a neat book shape when closed.
|
| Printed on
Magnani mould-made paper, this book is the first to come off the old
hand-operated platen press, purchased by De Walden Press earlier this
year. Combining modern technology and traditional methods, polymer
plates were made of the artwork and text, making it possible to
letterpress print both together. Interestingly, this mimics the
old method of hand-engraving metal plates with both text and
illustrations, as can be seen in some of the early 19th century versions
of this rhyme. |
| The book is
hand-bound in sage green goat leather, which has a beautiful
two-toned grain. The title is gold blocked on the front cover, and
a separate booklet of notes and observations on this ancient rhyme
accompanies the book. Book and booklet are housed in a slipcase,
covered with a Japanese Chiyogami paper made from mulberry fibre. |
| Book: Twelve
double pages of hand-coloured illustrations and text plus
colophon. Size: 23/8"h x 27/8"w.
Booklet: Eighteen pages including
bibliography. Size: 2"h x 23/4"w. |
| Book &
Booklet sold together with slipcase, price CA$475.00 |
|
[ Old London Bridge ] [ Tower of London A to Z ] [ The Malvern Story ] [ Morgan ] [ Shakespeare's Flowers ] [ Shakespeare's Harvest ] [ Shakespeare: Man of Property ] [ Sea-Change ] [ The Fortune Teller ] [ The House that Jack Built ] [ Sonnet XVIII ] [ Qualicum Blue ] |
