Among volumes illustrated, each by the members of the Birmingham school, are "A Book of Pictured Carols" (George Allen), and Mr. Baring-Gould's "Nursery Rhymes" (Methuen). Both these volumes contain some of the most representative work of Birmingham, and the latter, with its rich borders and many pictures, is a book that consistently maintains a very fine ideal, rare at any time, and perhaps never before applied to a book for the nursery. Indeed were it needful to choose a single book to represent the school, this one would stand the test of selection.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "NURSERY RHYMES" BY PAUL WOODROFFE (GEORGE ALLEN. 1897)]
In Messrs. Dent's "Banbury Cross" series, the Misses Violet and Evelyn Holden illustrated "The House that Jack Built"; Sidney Heath was responsible for "Aladdin," and Mrs. H. T. Adams decorated "Tom Thumb, &c."
Mr. Laurence Housman is more than an illustrator of fairy tales; he is himself a rare creator of such fancies, and has, moreover, an almost unique power of conveying his ideas in the medium. His "Farm in Fairyland" and "A House of Joy" (both published by Kegan Paul and Co.) have often been referred to in THE STUDIO. Yet, at the risk of reiterating what nobody of taste doubts, one must place his work in this direction head and shoulders above the crowd--even the crowd of excellent illustrators--because its amazing fantasy and caprice are supported by cunning technique that makes the whole work a "picture," not merely a decoration or an interpretation of the text. As a spinner of entirely bewitching stories, that hold a child spell-bound, and can be read and re-read by adults, he is a near rival of Andersen himself.
H. Granville Fell, better known perhaps from his decorations to "The Book of Job," and certain decorated pages in the _English Illustrated Magazine_, illustrated three of Messrs. Dent's "Banbury Cross" series--"Cinderella, &c.," "Ali Baba," and "Tom Hickathrift." His work in these is full of pleasant fancy and charming types.
A very sumptuous setting of the old fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast," in this case entitled "Zelinda and the Monster" (Dent, 1895), with ten photogravures after paintings by the Countess of Lovelace, must not be forgotten, as its text may bring it into our present category.
