2 Randolph Caldecott first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Diverting History of John Gilpin (text by William Cowper) (1878) to The House That Jack Built (1878) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Randolph Caldecott title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Randolph Caldecott copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

The Diverting History of John Gilpin (text by William Cowper) — 1878 · George Routledge & Sons, LondonTRADE FIRST: an individual the printed price Picture Book (toy book) issued in illustrated colour paper wrappers, about 30 pp, roughly 9 x 8.5 in (23 x 21 cm), George Routledge & Sons 1878 (the two inaugural Picture Books, John Gilpin and The House That Jack Built, appeared December 1878), with the wood-engraved colour work executed and printed by Edmund Evans. Of the sixteen Caldecott Picture Books, John Gilpin…. The true first of the signature work is the standalone 1878 George Routledge & Sons issue of John Gilpin in original colour paper wrappers (colour printing by Edmund Evans) — one of the two inaugural Picture Books (with The House That Jack Built), both dated 1878 and released December 1878. Because Caldecott produced these for the London printer/publisher, the Routledge London issue is the primary edition and any…. The fragile shilling wrappers were rarely preserved, so many surviving "first editions" are actually later Routledge reprints, later Frederick Warne printings (Routledge sold its children's-book interests and the colour plates to Warne circa 1900, after which the Warne name and a stiffer binding replaced the Routledge wrappers), or copies rebound/extracted from the multi-title bound "Picture Book" omnibus volumes….
The House That Jack Built — 1878 · George Routledge and SonsOne of the first two Caldecott picture books commissioned by engraver-printer Edmund Evans, issued alongside 'The Diverting History of John Gilpin' for the Christmas 1878 trade. The true first edition was issued as an individual toy book of about 30 pages in the original color-printed pictorial paper wrappers, not in the later cloth-bound compilation volumes that gathered several toy books together, which…. Routledge, and later Frederick Warne, reissued sets of Caldecott's individual toy books bound together into compilation volumes ('R. Caldecott's Picture Book' and similar titles); these compiled cloth volumes postdate, and are not, the individually wrappered first issue of this title.

More Children's & YA shelves: Richard Peck, Rick Riordan, Roald Dahl, Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling), Robert Lawson, Robert McCloskey.

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