If oil companies can target children, then why not automobile manufacturers? Item 55 is Automobiles. With Jack and Jill in Motor-Car Land. Jack and Jill weren't fetching a pail of water. They were fetching a new automobile, and not any automobile would do. No Model T's or A's or Chevys. They wanted a Packard. I don't blame them. I want a Packard too. Unfortunately, Packard was not as successful at building brand loyalty with the next generation of children as Esso and Conoco and went out of business in 1958. That's a shame, as this story book clearly shows that Packards were a superior automobile. $100.
What could be cuter than a hippo? Actually, a lot of things are cuter than a hippopotamus, but not than these hippopatami (is that the correct plural?). Item 226 is Hi-Po the Hippo, a story by Dorothy Thomas with illustrations by Ruth Gannett. It is the story of a humanized family of hippos, which Aleph-Bet notes, is “illustrated with the most incredible full page and partial page color and black and white lithographs that bring this family to life.” Published in 1942. $500.
Item 1 offers an unusual combination of avant-garde art and an alphabet book. Circa 1913 it is A B C D by Andre Blandin. It features cubist drawings, a style that had just emerged with Picasso and others a few years earlier. Each letter has a one word description. However, the one word is presented in three languages: French, English and German. Aleph-Bet points out that very little is known about Blandin, but that he was associated with Guillaume Apollinaire, the writer who coined the term “surrealism” to describe his writing. $3,250.
From cubist letters we go to letter cubes: My Book of Letter Cubes. It is an ABC book that contains eight leaves of colored illustrations of letters, which can be clipped and glued on cubes. Item 29, circa 1925. $150.
Aleph-Bet Books may be reached at 914-764-7410 or Helen@alephbet.com. Their website is found at www.alephbet.com.
