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My Nursery Rhyme Book is a large hardcover collection of nursery rhymes with a pink cover. The front cover features a beautiful brown-haired girl wearing a flowered hat and holding two dolls. Around her are other figures: a Scottish boy holding a pig (likely Tom the Piper's Son), a robin, a boy riding a cockhorse, a frolicking lamb, an egg person (likely Humpty Dumpty), and a fiddling cat. The back cover shows Little Miss Muffet sitting with a spilled bowl of curds and whey, reaching for a hanging spider. None of the illustrations from the cover appear in the book, and it's likely they are drawn by a different illustrator than the artists of the interior illustrations. Unfortunately, there are no illustrators attributed for the collection, so we have to use some sleuthing skills (or guesswork) to figure these out.
The endpapers (front and back) are a bright blue with white and black (silhouette-style) illustrations. Below on the left is an illustration from the endpapers of the old woman who lived in a shoe. I'm not sure of the source of the shoe, but the figure of the old woman using an umbrella to spank a child appears to be a direct copy of an illustration by Mary Brooks, published by Ward Publishing in 1969. I'm not sure if the other endpaper images are also copies of other artists' works – I just recognised that one as I particularly liked it when I read the nursery rhyme collection illustrated by Brooks!
There is no contents page or index of first lines for the collection so I have collated several lists below. This collection is 96 pages long so it contains a lot of nursery rhymes. It appears to be a collation of six previously published collections, so I have divided the contents into "sets" and I'll explain the apparent origins of each of these sets below.
Set 1 (16 pages) – Nursery Rhymes (1966, illus. Jo Eaves)
The first set of nursery rhymes, from 'Jack and Jill' to 'Simple Simon', appear to come from an earlier Nursery Rhymes collection published by World Distributors in 1966. That earlier version attributes the illustrations to Jo Eaves. I don't have a personal copy of the earlier collection but I found pictures from a copy for sale on Etsy, and it shows that the typographical arrangements (text and illustrations) of that collection have been reprinted here – for the most part.
Based on the two pictures I was able to compare, I noticed a curious thing about the reprint – on the opening page, copied below, the original picture has the familiar Jack and Jill rhyme, while the reprint has an unusual rewrite of the last two lines (this doesn't appear to be a variation of Jack and Jill; I think it is something made up for this collection, although I'm happy to be corrected).
I enjoyed the selection of rhymes and the bright, blocky illustrations of small children and other characters.
Contents of set 1:
Jack and Jill
Little Jack Horner
Little Polly Flinders
A Bunch of Blue Ribbons
Wee Willie Winkie
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Rock-a-Bye, Baby
He that would Thrive
Davy, Davy Dumpling
Polly, Put the Kettle On
A Little Girl With a Curl
Ding, Dong, Bell
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
The Queen of Hearts
January – December
Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary
Little Miss Muffet
Alas! Alas! For Miss Mackay!
There Was an Old Woman [who lived in a shoe]
Prayer
Twinkle, Twinkle
Curly-Locks
I Love Little Pussy
Simple Simon
Set 2 (16 pages) – Animal Rhymes (1973, 1980, illus. Susan Aspey)
Sets 3 (16 pages) – Nursery Rhymes from Lullaby Land (1973, 1980, illus. unknown)
The third set of rhymes and illustrations (starting with 'Rock-a-bye Baby' and ending with 'And Now, Good Night'), appears to be from Nursery Rhymes from Lullaby Land, published by World Distributors in 1973 as part of the Emerald series and in 1980 as part of the Rhymetime series. I was able to find a single page shared on the internet which is typographically identical to a page in this collection so seems to confirm this.
For other pages, I suspect there have been some rhyme swaps from the original typographical arrangement in 1973. For example, the illustration for 'Bye, Baby Bunting' (a cradle in the treetops) looks more likely to have belonged to 'Rock-a-Bye Baby', and the illustration for 'Little Fred' (a boy in a white nightshirt, carrying a lantern and calling out, alongside a boy in bed holding a clock set at 8) appears to have been intended as an illustration for 'Wee Willie Winkie'. More obviously, both rhymes from this page appear changed, the illustrations clearly intended for 'Little Boy Blue' and his horn and 'There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe'.
I can't find an illustrator attributed to any versions of this set of illustrations, but given that three other nursery rhyme books of the Emerald/Rhymetime series were illustrated by Susan (Sue) Aspey, and this appears to match her style, it is likely that she was also the illustrator of these.
This is a lovely set of illustrations and rhymes, and contained a variation of 'Ladybird, Ladybird' which I hadn't come across before and much prefer to the usual.
Contents of set 3:
Rock-a-Bye, Baby
Bye, Baby Bunting
Lie Still, My Baby
Go to Bed First
Come Out to Play
Friday Night's Dream
Little Fred
Star Light, Star Bright
The Bright Silver Moon
I See the Moon
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
The Man in the Moon was Caught in a Trap
Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling
Robin and Richard
There Was an Old Woman [tossed high in a basket]
Ladybird, Ladybird
Rock-a-Bye
Evening Red and Morning Grey
Early to Bed
Elsie Marley
There Was a Little Maid
If My Boy Sleeps Quietly
A Glass of Milk
To Bed, To Bed
Sleep Baby, My Dolly
Quiet the Night
What Shall you Buy?
There Was an Old Woman Who Lived by the Sea
The Cat Sat Asleep by the Fire
Cushy Cow
There Came an Old Woman from France
Bedfellows
To Make Your Candles Last
Golden Slumbers
A Good child
Matthew, Mark
And Now, Good Night
Set 4 (16 pages) – Round the World Nursery Rhymes (1973, 1980, illus. Susan Aspey)
If these images are from the collection titled Round the World Nursery Rhymes, it's interesting to note that they are all English nursery rhymes, simply featuring placenames and characters who have travelled from and to particular places (not, as you might imagine, a showcase of nursery rhymes from around the world).
The rhymes in this set were mostly all quite unfamiliar to me, which made them very interesting. The illustrations all seemed to align with their rhymes – this image gave me pause for a moment, thinking it very like an illustration of little boy blue and his horn, but it aligns with the verse of 'Little Boy, Little Boy', who was from Lancashire, born under a thorn, where they drink sour milk from a ram's horn.
As with the other nursery rhyme sets illustrated by Susan Aspey, this set has plenty to pore over and enjoy. The artwork of the final page of the previous set blends so nicely with the artwork of the first page of this set it made me wonder if they were painted that way – see this very blue and sleepy double page spread that works so well together.
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Contents of set 4:
How Many Miles to Babylon?
London Bridge is Broken Down
I Had a Little Hobby Horse
See-Saw, Up and Down
Merchants of London
Near St. Paul's Steeple
Pussy Cat Pussy Cat
As I was Going to Banbury
Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
Ride a Grey Mare to Banbury Fair
Three Wise Men of Gotham
The Man in the Moon
As I was Going to St. Ives
When I Was a Little Girl
Little Boy, Little Boy
As I Went to Bonner
Dingle Dingle Doosey
As I was Going to Derby
Old Farmer Giles
Doctor Foster Went to Gloucester
There was a Jolly Miller Once
Oh, the Brave Old Duke of York
There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in Dundee
In a Cottage in Fife
A Scottish Piper Had a Cow
Doctor Foster Was a Good Man
There Was an Old Man of the Border
Bryan O'Flynn Was an Irishman Born
Barney Was an Old Man
There were Three Jovial Welshmen
I Had a Little Nut Tree
My Father was a Frenchman
A Tailor Who Sailed from Quebec
Yankee Doodle Came to Town
Ten Little Indian Boys Standing in a Line
There Was an Old Man of Tobago
As a Fat Man of Bombay
There Was a Poor Man of Jamaica
Set 5 (16 pages) – (?) Mother Goose (1973, illus. Anna Dzierżek)
This set of illustrations (starting with 'Mother Goose', and ending with 'Tommy Snooks and Bessy Brooks') has quite different artwork from what comes before and after, and I suspect that this is a reprint of Mother Goose, published by World Distributors in 1973 as part of their Emerald series, and known to be illustrated by Anna Dzierżek. I haven't yet managed to get a copy, or to find any illustrations from that book to compare and confirm.
This set of illustrations are strikingly different from the surrounding sets – the colour palette is lighter and the characters often more rounded. The period clothing is different, with girls in big full petticoated skirts. Most of the rhymes seem to align with their illustrations. The only one that gave me pause was 'Early to bed' (which is accompanied by an image of a little boy in bed with one shoe off and one shoe on... apropos of Diddle diddle dumpling my son John).
There were many lovely images, here, but my favourite was this gorgeous illustration for 'Oranges and Lemons':
Contents of set 5:
Old Mother Goose
Bobby Shaftoe
See-Saw, Margery Daw
I Had a Little Pony
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Cobbler, Cobbler
Early to Bed
Three Blind Mice
One, Two, Three, Four, Five
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Oh Where, Oh Where is my Little Dog Gone?
If All the World Were Apple Pie
Oranges and Lemons
Little Bo-Peep
Hot-Cross Buns
Monday's Child
Humpty Dumpty
I Saw a Ship A-Sailing
When Jacky's a Good Boy
A Man in the Wilderness
Tommy Snooks and Bessy Brooks
Set 6 (16 pages) – Nursery Rhymes for Boys and Girls (1973, 1980, illus. Sue Aspey)
Summary
This is a lovely collection of illustrated nursery rhymes that covers a wide variety of rhymes. At first I found the various illustration styles a bit confusing, and the collection could definitely have benefited from a page properly attributing the previous collections printed here, and the illustrators who created the artworks.
Knowing up front that this collection is a group of previously published works would also help given that several nursery rhymes are repeated (which is unexpected in a collection). We have our unusual 'Jack and Jill' on the first page of the collection and a three verse 'Jack and Jill' in the final set of illustrations; 'The Queen of Hearts' also appears in both the opening and closing sets. Ironically, while there are multiple illustrations that appear to be for Little Boy Blue, we didn't end up with that rhyme in this collection at all!
This collection seems fairly rare. I was only able to locate one copy online (already sold), and that was a slightly later version, published in 1979, with different copyright dates (1976, 1979) and a different cover. Based on the pages shared there, it says even less on its copyright page about its sources, but appears to otherwise have the same rhymes and illustrations (although I can't be sure if it contains them all or has any other differences – given the different copyright dates, it seems likely it has differences).
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