Abstract
The aim of this study is to survey the toy book, the popular form of Victorian picture books, which was published in the second half of the nineteenth century in Britain on a huge scale by many publishers. Despite the formidable contribution to the history of picture books, the toy book has been completely neglected by English and American critics. This is the first serious survey of the Victorian toy book: the emergence and evolution of toy books and their link with the modem picture books. I concentrate on the toy book publication particularly by the firm of Routledge, because Routledge was the only firm that published toy books serially throughout the whole of the second half of the nineteenth century and produced the masterpieces of Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott in collaboration with the engraver-printer, Edmund Evans; in combination these three men significantly influenced later picture books. The thesis consists of three volumes: Volume I forms the text which discusses the historical evolution of and a diversity of images from toy books through the survey of design and technological development in the second half of the nineteenth century. In Chapter 1,1 survey the publication history of toy books by the firm of Routledge. In Chapter 2, I discuss the design history of the front cover in relation to the aesthetic movement, the cultural attitudes of the time and printing history. In Chapter 3, I survey Victorian printers who were the most influential factor in toy book production. In Chapter 4,1 fully discuss the development of the toy book into the modem picture book through the work of Edmund Evans. Volume II consists of nine hundred illustrations which provides readers with a visual reference of both the developing history and the diverse design of toy books. Volume III is the bibliography/catalogue which includes details of each toy book and composite volumes. I hope this thesis of three volumes will offer stimuli for further study not only for students of picture books and children’s books but researchers in other fields such as art, illustration, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, book design, fashion, images of childhood, anthropomorphism, and so on.