Seventeen halftone metal printing blocks, with wooden backs, of illustrations by Edward Jeffrey to Sheila Hodgetts's series of 'Toby Twirl' children's books, with one of the plates signed in type by Jeffrey.

Author: 
Edward Jeffrey (1898-1978) [Sheila Hodgetts (b.1924), author of the 'Toby Twirl' series of children's books]
Publication details: 
Undated [between the late 1940s and early 1950s].
£495.00
SKU: 10218

Each of the seventeen metal halftone printing blocks is roughly 10 cm square, and nailed to a mahogany block (roughly 10 x 10 x 2 cm). Each carries a number, in the bottom left-hand corner when printed: 7, 8, 9, 15 (two), 16 (two), 25, 27, 36, 38 (two), 39, 54, 56, 59, 60. (Three of the numbers are duplicated, but the illustrations are all different.) The last block (60) has the signature 'e. jeffrey' in type at the head. Images include Toby with a policeman; two with a magician and large pepperpot; two in a flying boot (one over a church); bidding farewell to the magician who is flying away in the boot; hiding from a bear; two with a circus ringmaster; and in a wooden cage in woodland.