Fox Collection: Dogs and Type

The Tail End of this Topic (Dogs)

Dogs in the 1840s have both nobler names and expressions than those found in children's books today. Towser, Turk, Tray, Dash, Spark, Trusty, Ponto, Hector and Snap also bear a passing resemblance to William Rehnquist.

"Why is a dog biting his tail like a good economist?" asks The Little Riddler (1.2.14).
"He makes both ends meet."

Type

There's very little evidence of typographic play in these books. Putting "great, huge bear" in 24 point type, "middle bear" in 18 point and "little, small, wee bear" in 8 point in The Story of the Three Bears (1.3.2) is about as far as it goes. In The Toy Grammar; Learning Without Labor (7.2.1), there is type in bold capitals in different sizes. "I'd BE Verb Active. Ain't that Droll?"

Some amazing swash lower case 'g's enliven The Comic Animal ABC (Box B) in which

Fat French Frogs
Feel Fine and Free
Fingering the Fifes
You see.

The more elaborate the chromolithographed illustrations get, the more washed-out and wan the type. There are some fun drawn alphabets of the rustic variety in Steamboat Alphabet (7.1.3) and of signal wires crossing through an alphabet of pylons in the Railway Alphabet.

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