(Zoo Animals) The Menagerie (Code No. 102); illustrated by Charles Kingsley Cook. London: Dean's Rag Book Co., Ltd., between 1910-1919. FIRST EDITION. 8vo - 8-1/8" x 6-11/16". [14] butterfly-folded double cloth pages including wrappers. Original publisher's [2] pp. advertising slip laid in.
Bound in red cloth-backed color pictorial limp cloth wrappers, sewn as issued. The textile edges exhibit the publisher's standard serrated pinking to the head and foot. The condition of the book is FINE, with both the external wrappers and the internal textile pages remaining flawless and free of the usual nursery laundering, staining, or fading.
Technical Construction and Edwardian Zoo Iconography
Patented in 1902 by Henry Samuel Dean, the Dean’s Rag Book Company manufactured children's books utilizing washable cotton cloth sheets printed with colorfast, non-toxic inks to endure nursery handling. This copy of The Menagerie (Code No. 102) utilizes the firm's signature "butterfly fold" construction. In this format, the linen leaves are printed on one side only and bound back-to-back, creating double-thickness pages that simulate the structural rigidity of a traditional board book while retaining full flexibility.
The text serves as a zoological primer illustrated by Charles Kingsley Cook, an Edwardian painter and illustrator known for his anatomical precision and animal portraiture. Cook's bold outlines and heavily saturated color compositions depict a variety of captive exotic fauna, with dedicated pages for flamingoes, an elephant, a porcupine, and an eagle. The work reflects the early twentieth-century British cultural focus on public menageries and imperial wildlife exhibitions as educational tools for young children.
Scarcity, Institutional Census, and Ephemera Survival
Because textile toy books were treated as playthings rather than library volumes, the vast majority of copies were dragged, chewed, washed, and destroyed. Finding an example from the pre-World War I era that avoids degradation and retains its original ink intensity is uncommon. The archival value of this copy is further enhanced by the presence of the original two-page publisher's advertising insert. These fragile, paper-printed slips were designed to be discarded at the point of sale, resulting in a near-zero survival rate. The ephemera preserves contemporary bibliographic documentation, including pricing schedules and active toy book checklist titles for the period.
A current global institutional search via WorldCat confirms the extreme scarcity of this edition, locating only a single copy in permanent public collections worldwide, preserved within the permanent holdings of the Princeton University Library.
A FLAWLESS EDWARDIAN TEXTILE SURVIVAL RETAINING THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISING INSERT, OF PRIMARY SIGNIFICANCE FOR SPECIALIZED COLLECTIONS DOCUMENTING MATERIAL CULTURE, NINETEENTH-CENTURY TOY PRINTING, AND ZOOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATION.
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