(Early English) The Butterfly's Ball, Bound With Nine Other Works. A Superb Sammelband of Ten Scarce Volumes of Juvenile Poetry Published by J. Harris in 1808. London: Printed for J. Harris, Successor to E. Newberry, at the Original Juvenile Library, Corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard (unless otherwise noted), 1808. SEVERAL FIRST EDITIONS. 32mo - 4-7/8" x 4". Together, 10 works bound into 1 volume: 1) [Roscoe, William] The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast. 16 pp., plus 8 leaves of engraved plates. 2) [Dorset, Catherine Ann] The Peacock "At Home:" A Sequel to the Butterfly's Ball. 16 pp., plus 6 leaves of engraved plates. 3) The Elephant's Ball, and Grand Fete Champetre. 16 pp., plus 8 leaves of engraved plates. 4) [Dorset, Catherine Ann] The Lion's Masquerade, a Sequel to the Peacock at Home. Second edition. 16 pp., plus 6 leaves of engraved plates (5 folding). 5) The Council of Dogs. First edition. 16 pp., plus 8 leaves of engraved plates. 6) The Horse's Levee, or the Court of Pegasus: Intended as a Companion to the Butterfly's Ball, and the Peacock "At Home." 16 pp., plus 8 leaves of engraved plates. 7) The Rose's Breakfast. First edition. 32 pp., plus 8 leaves of engraved plates. 8) Flora's Gala. First edition. 16 pp., plus 6 leaves of engraved plates. 9) The Feast of the Fishes; or, the Whale's Invitation to his Brethren of the Deep. 14, [2] pp. publisher's advertisements, plus hand-colored engraved frontispiece. 10) The Lobster's Voyage to the Brazils. First edition. London: Printed for J. Harris; and B. Crosby, 1808. 16 pp., plus 8 leaves of engraved plates.
The physical condition of the item is graded VERY GOOD (utilizing the standard antiquarian book grading scale for works on paper). The contemporary maroon roan-backed gray paper covered boards display rubbing and wear to the surfaces, edges, and spine extremities. All 10 works are bound together without their original individual wrappers. Internally, the leaves show light offsetting and minor scattered foxing, with occasional contemporary trimming slightly affecting pagination or signatures, while remaining clean, crisp, and in excellent overall condition.
The Rise of J. Harris and the 1807–1808 Children's Poetry Craze
This remarkable Sammelband preserves a defining moment in the history of English children's literature, capturing the literal explosion of whimsical, anthropomorphic poetry initiated by John Harris. Having succeeded Elizabeth Newbery at the celebrated Corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, Harris revolutionized the juvenile market by shifting away from rigid, moralizing instructional texts toward pure imaginative amusement. The catalyst was William Roscoe's The Butterfly's Ball, included here, published in 1807. Its unprecedented commercial success sparked an immediate sequence of imitations, responses, and sequels written by contemporary authors like Catherine Ann Dorset. Bound together in this single volume are ten of the most prominent titles from this brief, brilliant publishing phenomenon, presenting a comprehensive cross-section of early nineteenth-century juvenile verse.
Bibliographic Composition, Sammelband Structure, and Scarcity
Sammelbands of this nature offer profound insight into contemporary collecting habits, demonstrating how early owners organized and preserved fragile, small-format children's books that would otherwise have been destroyed by heavy handling. These 32mo "toy books" were originally issued in delicate paper wrappers; binding them together securely in roan-backed boards was a deliberate act of preservation. The inclusion of several true first editions—most notably The Council of Dogs, The Rose's Breakfast, and The Lobster's Voyage to the Brazils—along with the scarce hand-colored frontispiece of The Feast of the Fishes, elevates this compendium far beyond standard individual survival rates. Because these thin booklets were easily lost or separated, encountering ten closely related Harris imprints from the pinnacle year of 1808 in a unified contemporary binding is an exceptional rarity in commerce.
THIS SAMMELBAND, CONTAINING TEN RARE, FRAGILE "TOY BOOKS," PRESERVES A DEFINING MOMENT IN EARLY ENGLISH JUVENILE POETRY; THE 1808 EXPLOSION OF IMAGINATIVE VERSE SPEARHEADED BY J. HARRIS PUBLISHERS. BY SHIFTING AWAY FROM RIGID MORAL DICTATES TOWARD PURE AMUSEMENT, HARRIS REVOLUTIONIZED CHILDREN'S LITERATURE. THIS COMPENDIUM IS AN EXCEPTIONALLY SCARCE SURVIVAL, REPRESENTING A CRITICAL ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY OF EARLY ENGLISH CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, NINETEENTH-CENTURY JUVENILE POETRY, OR THE E. NEWBERY / J. HARRIS PUBLISHING COMPANIES.
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