# Is "The Baby's Opera: A Book of Old Rhymes with New Dresses" by Walter Crane a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Baby's Opera: A Book of Old Rhymes with New Dresses by Walter Crane (George Routledge and Sons, 1877) is identified by: Engraved and printed in color by Edmund Evans, with the music arranged by the artist's sister, Lucy Crane.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Engraved and printed in color by Edmund Evans, with the music arranged by the artist's sister, Lucy Crane
- The first edition contains eleven full-page color illustrations plus decorative color borders that vary page to page, bound in the publisher's original quarter-cloth over color-printed pictorial boards in various recorded colors (terra cotta, maroon, and brown among them), with no fixed priority established among the variants
- As with most of Crane's Evans-printed toy books of the period, the sheets carry no printed date or edition statement anywhere in the volume, so any priority among printings must be argued from binding and paper-stock points rather than from an imprint date
- Publisher imprint reads George Routledge and Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Walter Crane |
| Publisher | George Routledge and Sons |
| Year | 1877 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Engraved and printed in color by Edmund Evans, with the music arranged by the artist's sister, Lucy Crane |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Engraved and printed in color by Edmund Evans, with the music arranged by the artist's sister, Lucy Crane. The first edition contains eleven full-page color illustrations plus decorative color borders that vary page to page, bound in the publisher's original quarter-cloth over color-printed pictorial boards in various recorded colors (terra cotta, maroon, and brown among them), with no fixed priority established among the variants. As with most of Crane's Evans-printed toy books of the period, the sheets carry no printed date or edition statement anywhere in the volume, so any priority among printings must be argued from binding and paper-stock points rather than from an imprint date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Baby's Opera: A Book of Old Rhymes with New Dresses* by Walter Crane a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-babys-opera-a-book-of-old-rhymes-with-new-dresses
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.