Beauty & Beast Aunt Mary Series c.1855-65 McLoughlin hand color juvenile book

Beauty and the Beast. Aunt Mary’s Series.

Published NY, John McLoughlin, 24 Beekman, c.1855-65. 

16 pp. counting covers, six full page hand colored (orig.) woodcut images.

An early McLoughlin.

POOR physical condition but still appealing. Accumulation of assorted defects such as edge tears to all pages (some repaired with archival tape), soiling, chipped corners, spine resewn with thread long ago, etc.

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 color 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.

Book measures c.10 3/4"H x 6 3/4" W.

B15621