Phoebe, The Cottage Maid.

SEVEN HAND-COLOURED CUT OUT COSTUME DESIGNS

Exemplified in A Series of Rural Figures.

With seven loosely inserted hand-coloured cut out costumes.

First Edition. 12mo. [128 x 103 x 5 mm]. 20pp. Original grey paper wrappers with the title printed on the front and advertisements on the rear (slightly stained). In original drab paper covered card slipcase (a little worn).

London: printed [by D. N. Shury for] for S. and J. Fuller, Temple of Fancy and Juvenile Museum, Rathbone Place. Where are also sold Books of Instruction in Landscapes, Flowers, and Figures, and every requisite used in Drawing, 1812

The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books 1476-1910, vol.II, p.1053.

The front cover is dated 1811 and the advertisement on the rear announces "Early in January 1812, will be published, priced 6s. Hubert, the Cottage Boy, Being the Sequel to Phoebe the Cottage Maid [...]". There is a very short tear at the foot of the title, a few spots and minor marks, but it is a very good copy. All of the cut out costumes are present, one has an old repair on the rear and all have slips for the insertion of a removable head and a hat. The head and hat have not survived, as is often the case.

11 copies have been located in libraries around the world (British Library, Cambridge, Oxford, UCLA, San Antonio, Dartmouth, Indiana, Morgan, Toronto, Yale, University of Melbourne). Two copies have appeared at auction in recent years, both at Sotheby's, in 1983 and 1981, and both lacked the head and hat. According to the Morgan catalogue the poem was written by Dr. Walcot. An expanded prose translation in French was published in Paris by Didot in 1817.

Stock no. ebc7793