Kate Greenaway McLoughlin knock-off 1882 juvenile color painting book Art Steps

Painting Book. Steps to Art after Kate Greenaway.

Published NY, John McLoughlin 1882.

28 pp. counting covers.

Of interest for the contemporary Kate Greenaway knock-off connection which may well have been an unauthorized copyright violation.

All pages originally b& w, all colored long ago by a young artist too young to handle the task of staying inside the lines.

Spine paper split, pages loosened, chip to cover corner, short edge tears, close to disbound with all pages being loose.

This is what a much loved and well read/ handled 19th century juvenile looks like.

The survival rate of 19th century color paper juvenile books such as this is very low, a minuscule percentage (almost certainly under 10% in most cases, probably 1-5% of half of all those originally produced). Some issues scattered all over the place in publishing history may all but no longer exist as copies.

So even if “a lot” were made then, it would still be very modest by most modern standards of production.

Meaning the actual sales run of hand made books like this would have to be measured in low thousands, thus meaning survival rates probably below 100 -200 per title, with variations of course depending upon factors such as size, title, orig. price, condition, etc.

Therefore, all surviving examples of 19th century juvenile books should be considered inherently scarce and worthy of acquisition on some level, their actual comparative rarity being mostly invisible to the casual observer.

Please inspect pics carefully!

Books each measures c. 8 1/8" H x 7 5/8" W.

B15614