Banbury Chap Books and Nursery Toy Book Literature / [of the XVIII. and Early XIX. Centuries]

The volume compiles descriptions and facsimile reproductions of early engraved woodcut blocks used to illustrate chap books and nursery toy books of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with particular attention to blocks circulated through Banbury. It pairs hundreds of illustrations by artists and engravers such as Bewick, Blake, Cruikshank and their pupils with historical, typographical, topographical and antiquarian commentary; traces the practices of provincial and London publishers including links to John Newbery and Oliver Goldsmith; and documents editions, popular chap-book subjects, and surviving collections in major libraries.