Raymond Sheppard and Birds of Moorland, Hill and Sea by Elizabeth Gould

 

Birds of Moorland, Hill and Sea - Front and back cover

This is the third book alphabetically in the series by Elizabeth Gould, but fourth in order within the single volume My Little Bird Book, (1952). This title was published, like the other three, in 1950 - before the combined book of 1952. The book, published by Blackie and Son, came out in November 1950 at 1/6d. 

I've also previously mentioned there are no title pages to each individual volume.  The cover to Birds of Moorland, Hill and Sea shows seaside birds - thankfully, Sheppard ever the professional knew it would be really difficult to show all three types covered by the title!

So let's look at the Raymond Sheppard full colour artwork for this book

BIRDS OF MOORLAND, HILL AND SEA

Rock Pipit 

 

Herring Gull

Jackdaw

Oyster-catcher

Common Tern

Cormorant

Puffins

 

Gannet

Golden Plover

Redshank

Ring Ouzel

Curlew

Dunlin

Black-headed Gull

Linnet

Wheatear  

So that's the third book done, 

NEXT: Birds of Woodland and Hedgerow 

Raymond Sheppard and Birds of Meadow and Stream by Elizabeth Gould

Birds of Meadow and Stream

We've been looking at Elizabeth Gould's 'bird' books starting with My Little Book of Birds (1952). Birds of Meadow and Stream (1950) is the second book in the Blackie and Son series (all 4 of which make up the 1952 book) we see birds in their natural environment plus the occasional look at their eggs. As I've already stated the size of these books (7.5 x 5.5 inches) means some of the art is not as clear as it could be, but I would love to see any originals of these pieces!.

The cover shows five species of bird unlikely to be together in one spot but beautifully illustrative of the book's content.

 BIRDS OF MEADOW AND STREAM 

Meadow Pipit

Skylark

Cuckoo

Lapwing

Spotted Flycatcher

Pied Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

The Dipper

The Moorhen

The Coot

Kingfisher

Little Grebe

Heron

It's interesting to me to note that of all 64 images produced for this series, this Heron image is the only one which has two parts - adding to the page drama.

Sand Martin

Reed Warbler

 

Sedge Warbler

Notice the signature mark - for bookbinding identification - "G. 462" as this is the last page of 16. 

NEXT: We look at Birds of Moorland, Hill and Sea

Raymond Sheppard and Birds of the Garden by Elizabeth Gould

 

Birds of the Garden - Front and back cover

In my previous article introducing My Little Bird Book, (1952) I mentioned this book was made up of four books in one. The first I wish to cover is Birds of the Garden by Elizabeth Gould.  The book, published by Blackie and Son, came out in November 1950 at 1/6d (with the other 3 titles - which I'll cover in due course) at the same time.

I also mentioned previously there are no title pages to each individual volume. If I didn't know better I'd say My Little Bird Book came first and then the four parts were sold separately - but the invaluable Bookseller tells me the reverse - 4 titles published in 1950 and combined in one book in 1952!   

 

Birds of the Garden -half an endpaper and no title page!

As Blackie printed this book, on the last page, we see the usual "Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son Ltd, Glasgow" along with the signature mark "(G 461)" but no title page! Looking in the combined edition the signature marks are exactly the same running from "G461" through to "G464" - very strange! I think the "G" might mean printed in Glasgow as opposed to London, but that's a guess and the number - could it be a sequential publishing number? Some publishers use initials of long titles with a number to assist the bookbinding process. 

Also I noticed, for the first time, that some of these appeared in the comic Swift, published by Hulton Press as a junior Eagle.  If you look at the link to the reprinted "Birds and their nests" - itself a reprint of the Swift birds by Sheppard, you'll see the Wren depiction is similar to the one at the end of this article!

The cover of this book shows a garden bird feeding table  and six species of birds who I wouldn't normally see in one place. But it certainly works as a cover

 So let's look at the Raymond Sheppard full colour artwork for this book

BIRDS OF THE GARDEN

The Two Robins

Robins

Robins

Mistle Thrush

Song Thrush

Blackbird

House Sparrow

Hedge Sparrow

Chaffinch

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Starling

House Martin

Swift

Swallow

Brown Wren

Next: we look at Birds of the Meadow and Stream 

Raymond Sheppard and My Little Bird Book + Birds of the ... by Elizabeth Gould

My Little Bird Book - Dustjacket

A review in the Guardian (24 June 1952) of My Little Bird Book  by Elizabeth Gould seems rather patronising and I would imagine made Raymond Sheppard cross: 

 The presentation of "Nature" for children is always, though, a problem Blackies. those staunch, old children's publishers (on that rather rough, thick paper), have three new books which break no new ground in well-trodden fields. Elizabeth Gould's My Little Bird Book (6s) is agreeably easy about bird-identification, but in a rather cosy context, and with coloured illustrations by Raymond Sheppard that are always pretty, often good, but invariably, on the important question of eggs, completely unhelpful, a child who can read about "mucous" without being given explanations surely does not need Mr Jerry and Mrs Jenny Wren?

Why refer to 'eggs'? Sheppard was obviously asked to draw an example of each bird's egg with the bird. Here's the thrush. As the books are printed at approximately 7inches by 5.5 inches, it's not surprising the eggs are not very distinguishable. 

My Little Bird Book, p.8 - showing the egg insert

 My Little Bird Book, by Elizabeth Gould (Blackie & Son) appears to have been published on 24 April 1952 (at a cost of 6/-) which is curious as the component parts that have been amalgamated from 4 books seem to have been printed first. This concept is not too surprising as individual titles have always been combined into an omnibus edition, but the individual books I own appear strange. None have a title page! Looking on the Internet this looks correct. I'll say more when covering the individual titles. The four books in question are: Birds of the garden; Birds of the meadow and stream; Birds of  the woodland and hedgerow and finally Birds of the Moorland, hill and sea. 

Also of interest are the two endpapers

 

My Little Bird Book, Endpapers

Now if this image appears familiar, it's because it is a mirrored image of the dustjacket - and I notice Sheppard has not signed it at all - helping the mirroring!

In this combined book we get some B&W drawings which I include here:

My Little Bird Book - Frontispiece

My Little Bird Book -Title Page

My Little Bird Book -Contents Page

I'll post the images from all four books as separate entries as quickly as possible. If you want a short bibliography of the mysterious Elizabeth Gould I've covered that here.