Battledore (6 results)

Card with one fold. Originally published in Birmingham by T. Bloomer. The card is white.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 6-panel primer containing 4 pages of woodcut images for each letter of the alphabet; 3 versions of the alphabet in different typefaces and numbers printed on covers. Printed on thick stock. A rare American ABC book that pays to the so-called "Battledores" (German: badminton racket). The name comes from the original shape of a wooden disc with a handle, which allowed a dual usability: "In school it was used for teaching children the alphabet, while out of school served as the battledore in the game of shuttlecock and battledore" (Rosenbach). The battledore of folded cardboard was probably invented around 1746 by the London publisher Benjamin Collins and emerged from the widely used in England "Hornbook" (see Tuer 405). It enjoyed great popularity in this form, especially in the USA. The present Battledore proves already by its illustration to the alphabet (only 24 letters, without J and U) as a direct descendant of British role models.

A printed card with minor tears & creases at edges. Alphabets, numerals and syllabary.

Card with two folds; sl. fading. Yellow outside and white inside. A previous owner has added the pencilled date 1828. Wright's name is above the engraving of an eagle.

Single yellow card sheet, printed on both sides, folded into thirds. With five woodcut illustrations. A trifle rubbed, recto dulled and stained. The third located copy of a provincially published example of the early educational aid commonly referred to as a Battledore, with the usual alphabets, phonics and short words and phases. The battledore, commonly printed on a single sheet of card folded into thirds, was an offshoot of the hornbook, and was printed for the double purpose of serving as a literacy aid for the use of children when in school, and, during recreation, as a paddle in the game of shuttlecock and battledore, an early form of badminton. OCLC and COPAC combined record copies at just two locations (BL and McGill). Size: Dimensions 80 x 160 mm folded, 190 x 160 mm unfolded.

First and only edition. "The battledore was an offshoot of the hornbook, and was printed. for the double purpose it had to serve. In school it was used for teaching children the alphabet, whilst out of school it served as the battledore in the game of shuttlecock and battledore" (Rosenbach). This version of Battledore is believed to have been invented about 1746 in London "by Benjamin Collins, famous as the printer of the first edition of The Vicar of Wakefield at Salisbury" (ibid.). Although well represented institutionally in the US, according to Library Hub, Library Hub lists only one copy in the UK (Oxford). Rosenbach 428. Small octavo, 4 pp. from a concertina-style folded sheet printed on one side. Engraved sheet showing 24 letters of the alphabet (six to a page, no J or U), each illustrated with street vendors with their particular cries as captions. Bound within original printed pictorial wallet-style green card wrappers, with alphabets and numbers to covers, wood-engraved illustrations of sheep to front cover, and horses to rear cover, "Come, Read and Learn" to fore-edge flap, all within typographic decorative borders, title to flap verso. A little rubbed, somewhat darkened, small abrasions and green paper residues to flap verso, slight toning to contents. A remarkably well preserved copy.