[A.B.-books] Three (very rare) items: (1) Steill's Royal Pictorial Primer.

London, no publisher (printed by Sears), 1844, (32) p. with 19 woodcut illustrations, title page and 16 text pages with text in various woodcut borders, modern cardboard, 16mo.

One leaf lacks blank bottom corner, another leaf with tear. Still a good copy. Extremely rare title, WorldCat lists only two copies: of our edition one copy (in Australia), the British Library has a copy of the 1845 edition and therefore does not have our (first) edition. According to the introduction, its innovative design first teaches children the complete alphabet in lowercase only, and only then in capital letters: "In teaching both forms of the alphabet together, you present fifty-two characters tot the child, with only twenty-six names to distinguish them, and thus create difficulties and apparent contradictions, at the very season when the mind requires information by the easiest possible process." Besides the alphabet exercises, the book also contains numbers 1-12 and arithmetical problems. Added 2 more, incl. a Greek movable A-B book, c. 1960, with coloured illustrations, three moving disks for changing letters behind windows, and a clock with movable dials on reverse, spiralbound, oblong 8vo. (total 3)