Birds and Flowers; or, The Children's Guide to Gardening and Bird-Keeping. All Faithfulls in 2 large slipcases.
[Faithfull, Emily]. Birds and Flowers; or, the Children’s Guide to Gardening and Bird-Keeping… London: Printed and Published by Emily Faithfull….Victoria Press…, 1862.
12mo.; charming hand-colored frontispiece of two children gardening (according to Fredeman “the only book from the press with a colored illustration”); green cloth, upper panel elaborately stamped in gilt with tree and birds motif; front endpaper lacking, else quite good.
First edition of a mostly straight-forward instructional text on gardening for kids, although even here Faithfull’s press manages to get its political message across: for example, in a section discussing gathering sticks for laying out a square garden: “Most boys, and perhaps even some girls, know where to get such sticks!” (p. 15, our emphasis.)
(#5188)
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