Nursery Rhyme Treasury (1970, Young World Productions, illus. Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone)

Nursery Rhyme Treasury

Illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone

© 1970 Young World Productions Ltd, London

No ISBN

This collection of nursery rhymes illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone and published in 1970 by Young World Productions is one of my favourite nursery rhyme collections. It is beautifully designed, with an interesting selection of rhymes, and high quality typeset and illustrations.

The front interior flap of the dust jacket (exterior pictured above) says the following:

'Nursery Rhyme Treasury' is a companion title to 'Nursery Rhymes' which is also published by Young World and illustrated by Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone, the highly talented twin sisters whose work has graced the pages of so many children's books appearing in recent years.

Their work has contributed greatly to the charming appeal of this 'Treasury' which brings to youngsters a further collection of traditional rhymes. The combination of superb quality art-work and easy-to-read text matter set in an elegant type face will ensure that this Treasury is one which can be truly treasured.

Its pages contain many well-known pieces of traditional verse and any not included will doubtless be found among the pages of 'Nursery Rhymes', referred to above.

It's not clear if Nursery Rhymes, published the year before in 1969, also had a dust jacket that has simply been lost for the copies advertised for sale online (I imagine it did), but they both share the same red cloth covers and are approximately 45 pages apiece:

 

Photo credit (Nursery Rhymes): Book Express 

Nursery Rhyme Treasury has a contents page that outlines the rhymes within:

The endpapers are blue, with tessellated patterns in white (probably not designed by the Grahame Johnstones), containing four sitting figures from their illustrated rhymes situated within. It contains 38 rhymes, over 45 pages (paginated). Each of the rhymes has its own page with a clean white background that really makes the illustrations 'pop', and the titles and text are in a refined italics.

The first rhyme is 'Ding Dong Bell' and features a very angry Tommy Stout, literally kicking the butt of that renowned animal-hating fiend, Little Tommy Green (although here he is called Little Tommy Thin, which actually makes a lot more sense given his adversary's surname). There's also a third boy in the illustration, comforting poor kitty (there often appear to be other children watching the scenes of 'Ding Dong Bell' unfold).

The illustration for 'Four and Twenty Tailors' is more amusing than those often are, because it features the tailors as I believe the rhyme intended – much larger than the snail, yet still terrified of it. For an interesting explanation of this nursery rhyme, see A.E. Ellis's 'The snail in nursery rhymes', which explains that in folklore tailors "had a reputation for pusillanimity".

Illustration for 'Four and Twenty Tailors'

As one can expect with Grahame Johnstone illustrations, we see many characters bedecked in gorgeous period costumes, these characters in 'Pat-a-cake' being a case in point.

 

Illustration for 'Pat-a-cake'

There are surprising moments (like seeing three blind mice with no tails), amusing touches (like one of the three wise men of Gotham swimming for shore and Peter Piper picking actual jars of pickled peppers). I also learned there is a second verse to 'Jack Sprat' and that his wife's name is Joan. I wondered what was going on with the illustration to a rhyme I hadn't come across before, 'Cross Patch':

The woman looks so worried, and appears to be listening at the door before opening it. The wisdom of the internet offers several meanings to the rhyme that might help us understand the Grahame Johnstone's interpretation. Apparently a 'crosspatch' could mean an ill-tempered fool or gossip, so she might be listening at the door to something unpleasant to hear (about herself)! A more pleasant reading of the rhyme might be that it suggests that a person in a bad mood do something productive, take some time out to chill, and then be in a better mood to socialise. 

This wonderful collection appears quite rare – but not to despair! I've discovered it is repeated in its entirety in a collection more readily available, My Best Book of Rhymes – see my review.