1920 Rare First Edition - The Book of the Clock by Margaret W. Tarrant

A charming and uncommon 1920 First Edition of The Book of the Clock, beautifully illustrated by Margaret W. Tarrant with 28 illustrations in colour, together with silhouettes by Nina K. Brisley, in its delightful original pictorial binding.

Author: Harry Golding.
Title: The Book of the Clock.
Publisher: London & Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1920.
Edition: First Edition.
Language: English.
Pages: 144 pages.
Size: 8 x 6 inches.
Binding: Very good original red cloth-backed buff paper-covered boards, lettered and decorated in black to the spine, with a mounted colour illustration by Margaret W. Tarrant to the front board. Charming colour-illustrated endpapers. Light staining and expected age-related wear to the boards as shown, while remaining attractive and well preserved. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content, complete and well preserved, with light age toning and occasional minor marks consistent with age. The illustrations remain particularly attractive, with their delicate original colours well preserved.
Illustrations: Complete with 28 illustrations in colour by Margaret W. Tarrant, including 24 colour plates, together with charming black-and-white silhouette illustrations by Nina K. Brisley and colour-illustrated endpapers.

Estimate: USD $225–250.

The book: The Book of the Clock was published by Ward, Lock & Co. in 1920 as an imaginative introduction to the hours of the day. Harry Golding’s short rhymes follow children through their daily routines, from waking at half-past seven through meals, lessons, play and bedtime, each episode associated with a particular hour or half-hour. Clock faces accompany the verses, giving the book an appealing combination of storybook, picture book and early educational primer.

The volume is especially desirable for Margaret W. Tarrant’s enchanting colour illustrations, populated by children, toys, animals and fairies in the gentle, dreamlike manner for which she became celebrated. Particularly charming are the large colour-illustrated endpapers, The Hours of Day and The Hours of Night. Nina K. Brisley’s lively silhouettes provide a contrasting visual accompaniment throughout. Complete examples retaining the full complement of illustrations are increasingly attractive to collectors of Golden Age children’s illustration.

The illustrator: Margaret Winifred Tarrant (1888–1959) was a British illustrator particularly admired for her delicate watercolours of children, fairies and imaginative subjects. The daughter of artist Percy Tarrant, she began illustrating books while still young and became one of the most recognizable illustrators of early twentieth-century British children’s literature. Her work appeared in numerous books, postcards and prints, and her fairy imagery remains especially sought after by collectors.

Tarrant’s illustrations for The Book of the Clock display many of the qualities associated with her finest work: soft colours, expressive children, domestic scenes filled with small observational details, and excursions into the fairy world. Together with Nina K. Brisley’s silhouettes, they make this unusual early title an especially appealing example of Tarrant’s work from the Golden Age of illustrated children’s books.