Time On Our Hands: Old Book

Time On Our Hands:

A Wonderful Childrens' Book

At the Expo Center in Portland I recently attended the Palmer Wirff's Antiques Show.  I bought a couple of photos that I will post later but my prized purchase that day was a book called Pedlar's Ware by Mary and Margaret Baker.  It was published in 1925 and my copy was a library book for its career.  There are four stories in this book and each is written by one sister and accompanied by silhouettes painted by the other sister.  

Here are two examples of the silhouettes.  

There is a silhouette on nearly every other page.  Many are people--a juggler, three fancy ladies with fans, a dancing couple, a leprechaun, a beggar maid.  Some are fairies and some brownies.  Some are cats and some children.  There is a house, a woman with a child and a leprechaun.  They are all so wonderfully done.  

The stories aren't that great, frankly, but these silhouettes are the reason I bought the book to begin with.  I wonder about these sisters and how they spent their days.  Did the artist do her silhouette work hour after hour?  Did she paint them after the stories were written or before, to shape a story around?  

They published other books as well.  Together they wrote the stories and made the pictures for The Black Cats and the Tinker's Wife as well as The Dog, the Brownie and the Bramble Patch.  

I've studied the pages of this book until they are falling out of the binding.  I want to thank the Baker girls for doing this work so that a woman 87 years later could enjoy them.  What a great find!