Old childrens illustrations


I have a real fascination at the moment for old childrens illustrations, so I thought I'd share one of my own books from my childhood. I think it's one of the only books I have kept, and it finally made it's way out to Australia last year.
The book is called 'Lavender's Blue' and is a beautifully illustrated book full of classic (and some strange) nursery rhymes. As a very young child I loved leafing through the large pages - and rather than reading the nursery rhymes I was always drawn to the illustrations (well before I knew why!)
The book was first published in 1954 and contains a mix of black and white linear artwork and full colour pages of lovely naive and soft hand-drawn images illustrating the rhymes. As with the other books I have been collecting the appeal is in the style of the artwork which is so different to todays illustrative style, and the fact they are all hand generated with all the lovely quirks this brings.
"Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly, Lavender's green, when I am king dilly, dilly, You shall be Queen."