The Christmas Hamper (1906)
Evelyn Lance's The Christmas Hamper, with Six Beautiful Chromolithographic Plates, 1906
Lance, Evelyn. The Christmas Hamper. Buffalo, New York: Holiday Publishing Company, 1906.
Small octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition 1st Printing.
First edition of this wonderful turn-of-the-20th-century Christmas book, with six bold chromolithographic plates depicting children at play, in original pictorial boards. Anthologies of children's stories (not always Christmas-related) for Christmas were popular from the 19th century onward. While they tend toward the didactic, they are also often well-written and entertaining even a century later. This is a particularly lovely example from 1906, with quite accomplished color illustrations--not always particularly common in these books--and numerous line drawings. Only a couple faint marginal smudges to interior, some wear to book extremities not affecting bright cover illustration. A collectible copy of a type of book often found quite worn.