Sugar Plums is one of several collaborative projects between Mabel Dearmer and George Lambert, published by Frederick Warne in London. The date of publishing is 1881 or a year after. Illustrations were chromolithographed by Emrik and Binger. The book brings a collection of short songs and nursery rhymes adapted from old stories and songs. You'll definitely know numerous characters, but it's probably best to start with an explanation. What are sugar plums?

Sugar plums are traditional sweets that originated in England during the 15th century. The term 'sugar plum' is used to describe various types of hard candy that are oval or round, have intense colours, and are sweet, resembling plums. Sugar plums were made of sugar, not fruit, but often with a nut or seed in the middle. They were on the menu of Henry IV's wedding feast in 1403, and they were very likely fruit preserves in lively colors. Thanks to its purple colour, traditionally associated with royalty, the name 'sugar plums' might have caught on (though this is speculation).

However, sugar plums were reserved for the wealthy for centuries due to the extensive manual labour involved in their production. The slow and labour-intensive process of adding layer upon layer of expensive sugar was called panning, and producing a sugar plum took several days. It's interesting to note that the British slang word 'plum' has become a synonym for a bribe or a large sum of money. Only in the 19th century, with steam-powered machines and rotating pans, did they become ready for mass production and the commercial market.

When sugar plums entered popular culture, they instantly became associated with Christmas. They feature in many popular Christmas stories, such as 'A Visit from Saint Nicholas' and 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King'.

Now you know enough to enter the picture book Sugar Plums by Mabel, illustrated by George Lambert.

We'll provide all illustrations, and some will be accompanied by short commentaries.

Like most picture books of the time, this one combines full-colour pages with monochrome illustrations. This was due to the more expensive process of using multiple colours.

Here is the content page. It's neatly decorated, as is everything else.

Mother Goose and Mother Hubbard are, of course, popular characters from nursery rhyme books. So is the next character: Little Bo-peep.

Mabel Dearmer playfully connects two popular fictional characters from the worlds of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, who find their common ground in the famous Cinderella's dance.

Similarly, the next song presents Red Riding Hood who meets Mother Goose (but, in this case, a real goose, not an old lady with magical powers), instead of the big bad wolf.

As you may have noticed, the overall aesthetic (including fashion) is very much in keeping with the style of Kate Greenaway, which dominated England in the last quarter of the 19th century.

If you love the nostalgic atmosphere of vintage picture books created by Madel Dearmer and George Lambert, you can also enjoy their other joint projects: April Showers and Water Lilies.

Don't Forget to tell your friends!

While we automatically relate Cinderella to the Grimms' fairy tales, most people actually know only the version written by Charles Perrault and popularized by Walt Disney. Cinderella or Little Glass Slipper has the same characters and the plot as Aschenputtel (by the Grimm Brothers), but differs in three main details:

The story of cinderella have inspired numerous artists. We have a chance to walk through Aschenputtel with amazing illustrations by Hanns Anker. The book was published around 1910.

This single edition of the fairy tale Cinderella was first published around 1910 by A. Molling & Comp. in Hanover. Adolf Molling established it as a printing company in 1887. Due superb quality of printing, several international publishers ordered book printing at A. Molling and the company expanded to Berlin and started its own publishing activity. The present book was the first of many picture books by A. Molling.

Cinderella's mother died, and her father remarried. Her stepmother broght two daughters on their own into a household and soon, all three new ladies started commanding the girl. She was forced to do all the hard and dirty work, and that's how she got her nickname: Cinderella (Aschenputtel or Aschenbrodel in the German language). Her life looked terrible until an invitation to the dance came. The king's son is about to marry, and he needs to choose a bride. All girls from the kingdom are invited. Cinderella wants to go, too. But her stepmother gives her an impossible task: she needs to sort lentils from the ash in a very short time.

Luckily, Cinderella has helpers. The birds help her with all kinds of errands, and sorting lentils was not too hard for them. For some time, Cinderella believes she will go to the dance. Yet, her stepmother finds another reason to forbid her participation. She has no decent dress.

Cinderella is allowed to help her stepsisters dress up, but she must not go with the others. She will stay alone at home, without a chance to meet the prince and possibly improve her social status.

It's time for a little magic. In Cinderella's garden, a tree is growing. It's not an ordinary tree, because it grows on Cinderella's mother's grave. There, on the tree, a splendid dress appears. And there's also a pair of golden slippers!

Cinderella manages to get to the castle and instantly charms the prince. He wants to dance with her only. Her beauty enchants everybody else as well. Nobody recognizes poor dirty girl in astonishing attire. Still, there's a problem. The magic of the tree can last only till midnight. Cinderella has to leave before the prince even finds her name.

The invitation to another dance comes again, and the situation in Cinderella's home repeats. She stars for another evening and escapes before midnight.

For the third time, the prince orders to cover the steps with tar to slow down the mysterious princess. His plan fails, but she loses one of her golden shoes. This gives a chance to the prince. He will marry the girl whose foot fits the shoe!

It wasn't easy to try the slipper on all feet, but eventually, the prince found Cinderella. Her foot not only fit into the slipper, but she also has the other golden slipper!

This means one of the best-known happy endings in fairy tales!

Hanns Anker (1873-1950) was a painter, sculptor, etcher, and printmaker who studied in Berlin. He excelled at landscapes and urban scenes, but also figure studies, yet he focused quit early on graphic art and illustration. Anker also designed propaganda posters during the First World War. In the last active years, he mostly created sculptures. He had also written a few critical texts on art.

We have a chance to enjoy a rare masterpiece on the ancient Greek myth by Roberto Rascovich. It's a booklet made of six etchings and text, which is a simple retelling of the story about Persephone. We'll provide the whole set of digital scans with text also written because due to the chosen decorative font, it's sometimes hard to read. At the end, we'll add some more interesting facts.

This the song of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, whom Aidoneus carried away, as she played, apart from her mother with the deep bosomed daughters of the Ocean, in the meadow of soft grasses, cromis, and fait violets, and the strange flower narcissus, which came forth for the first time to snare the footsteps of the flower-like girl. She stretched forth to take the flower, then the earth opened and Aidoneus sprang out with his immortal horses, and he bore her away in his golden chariot.

No one heard her cry except Hecate, sitting in her cave thinking delicate thoughts, and the sun. So long as she saw the earth she still hoped to see her mother. The peaks of the hills and the depths of the sea echoed her cry. Her mother heard it. A sharp pain pierced her heart. She cast her hood from her shoulders and fled like a bird, seeking her daughter. Nine days she wandered with blazing torches in her hand. But the tenth day Hecate met her and told her that she heard the voice. Demeter fled away swiftly with her to the sun and he told her the whole story. A terrible grief took possesaion of Demeter and her anger she forsook the gods, and abode among men.

She sat by the virgin's well at Eleusis. She seemed as an aged woman. There the four young daughters of Celeus found her. They kindly asked her why she was there alone and preyed her to remain while they asked their mother's permission to bring her home. Demeter bowed her consent. Their mother bade them hire the woman to attend her new born son.

They find the glorious goddess sitting by the way side unmoved. Then they led her to their father's house and as she passed the threashold the pressure filled the doorway with divine brightness. Still they did not recognize her.

Demeter consented to remain and become the nurse of the child. She took him in her immortal hands and placed him in her fragrant bosom, and the child grew like a god. Demeter daily annointed it with ambrosia, breathing sweetly over it and at night she would hide it secretly in the red strength of the fire for her heart yearned towards it and she would fain give it immortal youth.

But the foolish fear of the mother prevented it, for one night she peeped upon them and in her terror cried out. The goddess heard her and in anger plurked the child from the fire and cast it on the ground. Then Demeter manifasted herself.

She put away the mask of old age and the spirit of beauty breathed about her and the house was filled with the brightness of lightning. To propitiate the glorious goddess Celeus build a fair temple a her command. Then she sat within its walls wasting in regret for her daughter. In anger she sent upon the earth a famine. The seeds fell fruitless on the earth and the whole human race had like to have perished. Zeus seat all the gods to turn her anger but she would not hear them nor yield the fruits on the earth.

Then Zeus sent Hermes to persuade Aidoneus to suffer his bride to return. He obeyed the message and bade Persephone to return, yet praying her to have gentle thoughts of him. Then Aidoneus sent her with Hermes in his chariot, and they passed quickly over the long journey neither waters or lands resiting them until they came before the door of the temple where her mother was, who seeing her ran out quickly to meet her, like a maenad coming down a mountain side, dusky with woods.

So they spent the day in joy, and Zeus ordained that Persephone remain two parts of the year with her mother and one third with her husband in the kingdom of the dead.

So Demeter suffered the earth to yield its fruits once more and the land was laden with leaves and flowers and waving corn.

Unknown names and strange words:

This is only one of numerous myths about Persephone. It focuses on her mother Demeter and almost completely neglects Hades (Aidoneus). It also doesn't explain why is she obligated to spend part of the year in the underworld. The most common explanation is that she ate the fruit from the underworld, but there are also examples of her eventually falling in love with her abductor.

Roberto Benjamin Rascovich is quite an elusive artist. We know much more about his work than his personal life. He was a printmaker, a watercolorist, and a wood carver.

Roberto Rascovich was born in Split (Spalato) to a family of Italian origin and was raised in an Italian-influenced surrounding. Split, however, was at the time of his birth part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, so you'll probably also find data he was Austrian. He wasn't. If we had to give only one citizenship to a man who fluently spoke seven languages it would be American. After his studies in Paris, Rome, Venice, and Vienna, he decided to move to America. His ship Spaarndam landed in New York in 1891 and his documents show he was 27 years old which suggests 1862 as his date of birth. But his birth data claims he was born in 1857. Another mystery is his marriage to an American woman. We don't know her name, nor if they married before or after he came to the USA. There is no data about their children, if any. There's also a possibility they married only to make him easier to get American citizenship.

What we do know, is he opened a studio in Chicago in 1893 and stayed in the 'Windy City' with occasional moves along the East Coast to the end of his life. Rascovich painted for high society what earned him good income while simultaneously getting at least two rewards: Columbian Expo, 1893, and Arche Club Salon, 1897. Especially A Canal in Venice, a painting from the World Fair in 1893 opened his doors to the most wealthy customers.

Rascovich had numerous exhibitions mostly in Chicago, but also in Washington and New York. His life ended unexpectedly soon due stroke in 1905. The stroke got him in one of his student's studios. We don't know who was this student and if their relationship was purely professional, but we are sure we'll learn more about Rascovich in the next years while many of his works in private collections are still waiting to be discovered.

Jessie Marion King is known as an accomplished illustrator and designer. Less known is the fact she wrote several books as well. Mummy's Bedtime Stories is one of such works. She wrote, illustrated, and designed it, leaving to posterity a fine example of her characteristic fairy world. This is a book for helping to get your kids into bed and lull them to sleep.

Stories are accompanied by pictures (all by Jessie M. King, of course) which don't serve just as a decoration but offer an experience on its own. You'll notice that just a limited amount of colors was used for printing this book (published by Cecil Palmer, London) which gave just another challenge to the artist's creativity.

You be the judge of her success.

As far as we know, Jessie M. King had only one child, so this dedication opens a few questions we won't try to answer.

The frontispiece already shows what we may expect inside the book. All the major Jessie Marion King's signature elements are here. Angels, fairies, children, strong outlines, soft and bright colors, a lot of dots, and, obviously, everything is neatly placed inside the border.

The book consists of twelve stories of approximately equal size.

Peter and Mary are brother and sister. He is a naughty boy and she is a good girl. Two fairies and an elf, who lived in the garden, decided to play with her. But would they take Peter to the fairy party too?

A very simple tale about a bunny who played in the woods and got lost. He wanted to return home for supper but couldn't find his way to the mummy. He asked several animals and none of them knew where his mother lived. Finally, a robin showed him the way.

Mrs. Bumble and Mr. Beetle always eat jam together. But one day there was just a tiny amount of it in the jar. Instead of being polite, they rushed to the jar and fell in ...

Golden Sun, Silver Moon, and Jack Frost are siblings. Every one of them has a job to do. The story focuses on Jack Frost who lives in the North Pole and takes care of the world when Golden Sun is too tired to provide warmth.

Mummy had many little boys. When they grew up, one by one left home and settled in different parts of the world. When Mummy stayed alone, her neighbors got a wicked idea ...

A Horse, a Pony, and a Donkey lived together. Two of them were hard workers but Donkey always complained and when he got a chance ran away. Yet the freedom came with a price. The food was not tasty, the outside was not warm, and when the rain started ...

All presented stories are very educational but this one is the closest to the form of the fable. It clearly presents the author's philosophy on books and art in general. In her opinion, the educational part was a must. And let's not forget she worked as a teacher for many years as well.

There are supposed to be two kinds of tiny people: good ones and bad ones. Good ones are called fairies and bad ones are imps. This is a story about imps. Two of the most notorious imps are called I Want and I Don't Want. Yet they can be also useful from time to time ...

Every hour an old grandfather clock strikes so many times as the clock is. Mary, a little girl lies in her bed and wonders how was life before she was born and where she came from. Suddenly, a grandfather clock comes to her room and offers her some answers...

There was a boy who had a very bad temper. He made the life of his parents sad and all animals tried to get out of his way because he liked to hit and kick them. Once he hit a cow with a stick and laughed at her fear but then the punishment came...

Sorry, this tale is missing from my copy

Jill was a very naughty girl who often had a very simple problem. Nobody wanted to play with her. One day she fell asleep and woke up seeing a brownie playing in the tree. He asked her if she was naughty and if nobody wanted to play with her. Then he offered a solution.

The little girl overheard her parents about a little boy, her brother, would come soon. She asks her Nunny where babies come from and she suggests she ask the fairies in the Dreamland. Maybe they will not just tell but show her.

As we can see, all the stories are made pretty much the same. Even more, the characters are very shallow and similar to each other (curious and naughty) and have the very same questions and problems. All problems are also solved in the same form - by visits and talks with fairy people.

Such stories are very easy to write, especially if they are as short as these ones. Yet they never become popular and are very soon forgotten. Jessie Marion King's stories suffer from the very same facts. She was a top illustrator but not much of a writer. Even much more successful writers of her time had almost identical approaches. They all wanted to use fiction for children for educational purposes.

Simplifying stories into educational lessons is especially typical for illustrators who decide to write the stories for their illustrations. Pictures are, obviously, their main occupation, so they focus on scenery but don't work enough on plots. Publishers encourage illustrators for such an approach because it's easier to work with an author-illustrator than with an author and an illustrator. They believe that commercial success (and in the short-term, it's very often true) is mostly dependent on promotion.

The magic of classic fairy tales, already present on the market, was not understood. The necessary condition for a successful fairy tale was (and still is) a transformation of the main character through actions by using action-reaction laws. That's why so many people try to write fairy tales and so few of them achieve at least publishing, not to mention commercial success or even survive long enough to be considered a classic.

If you want to learn more about writing fairy tales, I recommend you to read an article simply titled How to write a fairy tale.

Enjoy and good luck!