Children's and Illustrated

Rare Children's Books at Forum Auctions

Rare Children's Books provide a wonderful way to reconnect with one's childhood. From first editions by Beatrix Potter to first editions of Harry Potter, Dr Seuss to Dr Doolittle, an assortment of friendly bears with a penchant for sweet sticky substances, and a vast range of others including moving-part books, early educational books for children and the luxurious colour-plate books of the Edwardian and inter-war era, Children's Books at Forum Auctions offers a veritable box of delights.

Collectors of Rare Children's Books often focus on particular eras, for example the "incunabula" of children's books, generally held to be the 18th century, when printer-publishers such as John Newbery and the Darton family started producing simple, woodcut illustrated chapbooks and similar designed to stimulate and, often at least, educate young readers.

The Victorian era unsurprisingly saw a huge ramping up of children's books production, with new printing processes allowing the mass production of colour illustrated books and juvenilia, whilst companies such as Dean and Raphael Tuck experimented with moving parts and other engaging elements for little hands, which are highly collectable in good working order. The Golden Age of Illustration sprang out of this technological shift, with illustrators such as Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parrish, Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielsen and W. Heath Robinson taking the art of children's book illustration to new heights.

Collectable & Rare Children's Books of the 20th century becomes more oriented around the significance of the first edition; a new era of children's literature, with characters such as Peter Rabbit (& friends),Toad of Toad Hall, Winnie-the-Pooh, the Velveteen Rabbit, Rupert Bear, Biggles, the Cat in the Hat, Stuart Little, Paddington and, of course, Harry Potter, proving to be timelessly popular with new generations of young readers, and collectors. First editions of these works in the best possible condition can be extremely valuable, though often require a familiarity with issue points to be correctly identified and valuated.

Rare Illustrated Books at Forum Auctions

The 'Illustrated Books' in 'Children's & Illustrated Books' may seem a somewhat moot distinction, but here at Forum Auctions this refers to Rare Illustrated Books aimed at a more mature readership. This can include works by the great illustrators of the late Victorian/early modern era, such as Arthur Rackham, Harry Clarke, Willy Pogany and Aubrey Beardsley, but also incorporates Rare Illustrated Books featuring illustrations by the renowned caricaturists and illustrators of the 18th and early 19th centuries, such as James Gillray, William & Henry Heath, William Hogarth, Thomas Rowlandson, George & Robert Cruikshank, and John Leech. Rare Illustrated Books at Forum Auctions is complemented by our 16th-19th Century Works on Paper department.