1884.]. Oblong small 4to, pp. 21, [3] advertisements; illustrated throughout with numerous wood engraved vignettes, and with woodcut Royal Coat of arms above colophon on inside rear wrapper; small tear to outer margin of p. 3 but not touching text, some occasional light foxing and marginal dust-soiling, but otherwise clean and bright; untrimmed and stitched as issued in the original pictorial brown card wrappers, vignettes and title in black, with Penny red postage stamp cancelled by postmark on rare wrapper illustration, some light edgewear, and corners a little furled, but otherwise a very good copy. First edition of this charming rhyming ABC for children by the noted Newcastle upon Tyne artist and author Joseph Crawhall (1821-1896), and illustrated with a series of distinctive woodcut vignettes. As the outer wrapper notes, copies could either be purchased uncoloured for one shilling, or ‘coloured throughout’ for two and six pence. The Aunt Elspa's books were named after a pet name for Joseph Crawhall's eldest daughter, Elspeth, who married Frederick Challoner in 1883.
A facsimile edition was produced of the present work by the Scolar Press in 1978. An introductory essay by Peter Stockham in that edition notes: "The partnership of the publisher Field & Tuer, and the Newcastle wood engraver Joseph Crawhall, produced some of the most striking illustrated books of the last half of the nineteenth century. The distinctive thick black lines of the cuts recall chapbook illustrations popular from the seventeenth until the earlier part of the nineteenth centuries; but Crawhill 'made it new' in a way which distinguishes him as a positive and real contributor to graphic art."
As the final colophon reveals, the Leadenhall Press clearly participated in some way at the International Health Exhibition held at South Kensington - presumably setting up a printing establishment in the street. They certainly printed keepsakes to mark the visit, as examples of a printed bifolium ‘Memento imprinted yn Ye Olde Street of London Towne ye greate attraction yn ye Health Exhibition’. Whether the present work was printed there, or back in Leadenhall Street is unclear.