Pam’s Pictorama Post: Last night a friend from Europe took shelter couch surfer here at Deitch Studio after an airline mixed up. Pete and Kim were up late catching up so I am typing quietly with my coffee. As visitors and long time readers know, Deitch Studio is a very compact establishment and should you come to spend the night you are more or less sleeping at our feet with a wall of bookcase between us. Anyway, coffee is on and the sun is coming up.

Cookie wanted her breakfast and Blackie is hiding – evidently he somehow thinks an overnight guest might result in him being placed in a carrier and going somewhere! I hate to say it but Cookie visibly expands when Blackie isn’t around. She is rolling on the floor and talking to Kim while he does his morning exercises.

I am off to New Jersey today to handle some appointments there. Sadly Kim and I will be paying a condolence call in the afternoon so it isn’t an early start for NJ.

All this to say, I don’t want to give Four Footed Friends short shrift and will attempt to do it justice this morning. We picked it up at the 26th Street Flea market two weeks ago. The cover is in unfortunate shape and it is a bit off my usual beat, but Kim and I are both suckers for good illustrations and this has a few inside. I decided that for a few dollars I wouldn’t leave it there and I bought it along with a couple of photos which may be shared in a future post.

I used to buy more children’s books. I think just space constraints in general keeps me from being a real player. I started back when I was still doing more drawing. (I thought about that is bouncing around in my head so maybe more to come on that too.) I would pick them up at library sales and flea markets and use them for reference.

As far as I can tell this is a somewhat later version of a book by the same company (McLouglin Bros. of Springfield, Mass.) – from the 1890’s, also in linen but with a full color cover. Ours must be a bit later but there is no date. It seems like it could be a reprint from the teens. It has water damage what I thought was foxing but now I am thinking something may have actually splashed on it.

My copy starts right in with illustrations and on page 2 where Faithful Carlo, is featured. A prior owner, Ernest Cooueles (?), has written his name in a neat if childish script. This handsome pooch is holding what might be a riding crop – not sure why. Maybe this is originally from another book.

Some of the illustrations are line drawings, although several are also in color. Admittedly the color plates don’t seem to correspond to a storyline and have just been dropped in. The Cow was definitely in the earlier book. There is a mix of a few compact nursery stories too.

A single additional page was included, French Nurse. (From the Green Isle.) This is a much more ironic illustrated rhyme which seems a bit odd to have felt compelled to include. Someone has printed, in a less legible hand, Margaret Ross.

You try your best to make folks think
That you're a maid from France,
But that you hair from Ireland's bogs
They can all see at a glance.
You're as lazy as you're homely,
Which is saying a good deal;
And for the kid that's trust to you, 
The hardest heart must pity feel.

And there you have it – Pictorama for today!