{"product_id":"the-childs-companion-and-juvenile-instructor-1883-annual-volume","title":"The Child's Companion and Juvenile Instructor [1883] — Annual Volume","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublication:\u003c\/b\u003e London, The Religious Tract Society, [1883]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormatting:\u003c\/b\u003e 8vo, pp. [iv], 192.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Report:\u003c\/b\u003e Very Good. The volume is firmly bound in the publisher's glazed pictorial boards, which remain uncommonly bright and well-preserved, showing only minor rubbing and bumping to the corners alongside slight wear at the spine ends. Internally, the text block is securely seated and generally clean, with some scattered foxing primarily confined to the margins of the frontispiece and the gutter of the illustrated title page. The front free endpaper bears a neat contemporary ink gift inscription dated January 1884, and there is a very small, closed tear to the margin of page 93; otherwise, the pages remain supple and well-presented throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCatalogue Note:\u003c\/b\u003e This is the annual volume of \u003ci\u003eThe Child's Companion and Juvenile Instructor\u003c\/i\u003e for the year 1883, collecting twelve monthly issues of the highly influential Victorian children's periodical published by the Religious Tract Society. While the volume is undated, the contemporary gift inscription on the front endpaper, dated January 17th, 1884, securely identifies this as the 1883 annual issue, which would have been a standard New Year's gift of the era.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume is bound in one of the publisher's striking aesthetic-movement pictorial bindings. The front board features a tabby cat medallion surrounded by butterfly motifs, while the rear board displays a flowering branch; both panels have survived in remarkably bright condition. The book is complete with its vibrant chromolithograph frontispiece depicting a young girl playing with a coal scuttle, an illustration typical of the moral and cautionary visual tropes that the Religious Tract Society pioneered for its juvenile audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Child's Companion and Juvenile Instructor\u003c\/i\u003e was one of the longest-running and most popular children's periodicals of the nineteenth century, blending engaging serialised stories, natural history, and poetry with gentle moral and religious instruction. Produced by the Religious Tract Society, this annual volume gathers a year’s worth of monthly issues into a single, beautifully bound gift book. Profusely illustrated with intricate wood engravings and a stunning full-colour frontispiece, it offers a captivating and authentic glimpse into Victorian childhood, providing both entertainment and edification for the youth of the era.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Broadhursts Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54618438271315,"sku":"5133","price":97.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/1469\/6787\/files\/20260811_131456.jpg?v=1787042027","url":"https:\/\/broadhurstsbooks.com\/products\/the-childs-companion-and-juvenile-instructor-1883-annual-volume","provider":"Broadhursts Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}