1840. 8vo sheet (130 x 215mm), printed on grey card (verso off-white), with letterpress and three wood engraved illustrations; two folds, wallet-style with one panel forming a flap; very clean and crisp; wallet style construction apparently stiffened with printer’s waste, with some show through. A charming battledore published by the Kettering printer Joseph Toller. "The battledore was an offshoot of the hornbook, and was printed... for the double purpose it had to serve. In school it was used for teaching children the alphabet, whilst out of school it served as the battledore in the game of shuttlecock and battledore" (Rosenbach). 
Apparently four issues of Toller’s Kettering ‘New Royal Battledore’ are known, with different illustrations. Here we have one of a girl spinning next to a cottage, and a marine guardian angel with cupid on a raft. The final wood engraving is of Old Mother Hubbard and her cat, and z zebra on the flat.
The other one with a different illustration on a person spining, an elaborate courtroom battle scene, again Old Mother Hupbbard with a cat and a dog, and a zebra on the flap.