1909 First Edition- The Children’s Book of Gardening by Winifred Cayley-Robinson
The attractive 1909 First Edition of this charming Edwardian gardening book for young readers, complete with all twelve delicate full-page colour illustrations by Winifred Cayley-Robinson and its lovely pictorial cloth binding.
Author: Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick and Mrs. Paynter.
Title: The Children’s Book of Gardening.
Publisher: London: Adam and Charles Black, 1909.
Edition: First Edition.
Language: English.
Pages: xi, 235 pages, followed by publisher’s catalogue.
Size: 8.5 x 6 inches.
Binding: Very good original dark green cloth binding, beautifully decorated to the front board in gilt and green with an inset colour illustration of a young girl in a flower garden. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt and green. Upper edge gilt. Light rubbing and wear to the extremities, with a few small marks to the rear board and minor wear at the corners and spine ends, as shown. Binding firm and attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good condition. Complete and firmly bound, with scattered foxing throughout, more noticeable to the endpapers and some preliminary and marginal areas, as shown. Small previous owner’s name in ink to the front free endpaper. Otherwise clean and well preserved.
Illustrations: Complete with all 12 full-page colour illustrations after drawings by Winifred Cayley-Robinson, including the frontispiece A Herbaceous Border, together with The Tidy Gardener, January, Poppies, Larkspurs and Pinks, Daffodils, Irises, A Cornish Cottage, Lilies and Roses, The Road to Rome, A Window Garden, and A Room Garden in Spring. The illustrations retain their soft, luminous Edwardian colouring and are particularly appealing examples of early twentieth-century children’s book illustration.
Estimate: USD $175–200.
The book: The Children’s Book of Gardening was conceived specifically to teach children the practical foundations of gardening from a young reader’s point of view. The authors explain in their preface that the idea arose when a twelve-year-old boy living in Germany asked for an English book that would teach him the elements of gardening, only for it to become apparent that few such books existed. The result is a remarkably thorough yet approachable guide covering soil, annuals, perennials, bulbs, roses, lilies, fruit and vegetables, rock gardens, indoor gardening and a seasonal calendar of work.
Its particular charm lies in the marriage of practical instruction with Winifred Cayley-Robinson’s twelve colour illustrations. Children appear not merely observing gardens but actively tending them, watering flowers, sweeping paths and learning through direct participation. The result is both an evocative Edwardian children’s book and an attractive period work on gardening, with considerable appeal to collectors of illustrated books, childhood literature and garden history.
The authors and illustrator: Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick was Cecily Sidgwick (1854–1934), a prolific British novelist and writer who also produced works on domestic and practical subjects. Together with Mrs. Paynter, she approached gardening as something children could genuinely learn and practise rather than simply admire, giving the book an unusually practical character for its period.
The colour illustrations are by Winifred Cayley-Robinson, whose delicate compositions of children, flowers and garden settings belong to the refined tradition of Edwardian book illustration. Her images give this edition much of its enduring visual appeal, especially when preserved, as here, with the complete suite of twelve colour plates.