Prentjes almanach, voor kinderen by [CHILDREN’S ALMANAC].

First Edition. 24mo (100 x 75 mm), pp. [xx], 28, with 15 hand-coloured engraved plates, in the original blue publishers’ printed boards, title within typographical border, lower board also with printed text in border, some dampstaining and wear to extremities, spine faded and sometime strengthened.

A fabulously illustrated Dutch children’s almanac, with a series of hand-coloured engraved plates on children’s games and street cries. An important strand of children’s education in the Netherlands, Willem Houtgraaff started publishing his famous children’s almanacs in 1795. The present one, for the year 1799, starts with information on eclipses, a calendar, the price of rentals of houses and ships, and the costs of posts. This more traditional almanac information takes up the first part of the work, pp. 1-15, and is followed by a gallery of street cries, pp. 1-15, where the illustrations are interleaved with text in the form of poems describing the activities. These fall approximately into two types: the street seller, such as the seller of mousetraps, ink and umbrellas (a recent innovation), and the children’s pastimes, such as playing with pets, throwing marbles, flying a bird on a string or playing palette, a game involving bats and shuttlecocks. Also featured are the bagpipe player, various farmer workers and a lemon and apple seller. At the conclusion of the almanac are three short moral tales.

John Landwehr, "Verzonken cultuurwaarde in oude jeugdliteratuur", Literatuur Zonder Leeftijd, Jaargang 16 (2002), pp. 231-240.

OCLC lists Morgan only; Cotsen also has a copy.