Noah's Ark ABC and Picture Book.
New York: McLoughlin Brothers, 1905. First edition. Hardcover. Amusing anthropomorphic chromolithograph illustrations of animals, with a kangaroo for the letter "K", in this scarce children's picture book. The kangaroo illustration depicts a startled mother kangaroo as her tea is kicked over by her leaping joeys. Each page with two chromolithographic animal illustrations. Although the copyright is dated 1905, the chromolithographed illustrations bear various copyright dates of 1897 and 1905.
Other funny animal chromolithographs include a polar bear fanning himself, cats playing the fiddle, insect musicians, a jackal sweeping the floor as mermaids do the dishes, Noah on deck of the ark scanning the horizon with a telescope, and a tiger running a second hand clothing shop.
Frederika Grosvenor (1852 - 1920) was a California illustrator whose scarce surviving works include another children's book,' A Very Small Tale of Two Very Small Bears'.
Folio, 9 3/4" x 12 3/8". Quarter burgundy cloth and pictorial glazed white boards with illustration of the Ark and all its animals amusing themselves as a horrified Noah attempts to maintain control. Boards dusty, rubbed at lower corners. Child's pencil drawings at front end papers; and a parent's pencil list of pieces "Claude can say at 2 years old" as well as lines of verse at the rear. OCLC: 191234245 records 3 copies at the American Antiquarian Society, Princeton and Swarthmore. Good + overall. Item #23631
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