Baby Bunting & Co.

London: Jarrolds & Sons,1905.. Written and Illustrated by Irene Payne. 14cms x 10cms x 1cm. Curious pagination (in the style of the 'Dumpy Books' series) starting on page 14 with blank pages between pairs of pages of illustration facing page of text. Final page numbered 91. Coloured illustrations of the adventure of Baby Bunting (a little girl) and her doll Topsey who meet up with Baby Billy(a little boy in a blue dress). Gift message to front free endpaper, a few finger smudges to some pages, crease to top corner of page 74. Grey illustrated boards with sympathetic repairs to spine. A scarce book. G+. ** Irene Marion Ethel Foord-Kelcey (n�e Payne) was born in 1887, the youngest of three sisters. Her family were affluent wine merchants whose business was based in St James's Street, London. Her grandfather, William Payne, was a member of the Royal Household - Gentleman of Her Majesty's and the Prince of Wales's Wines Cellars. In the early years of her childhood her father, Alexander Payne, was declared bankrupt when the Prince of Wales failed to pay back a loan he had underwritten. Alexander spent the rest of his life trying, with little success, to turn his energy and enterprise into money. Irene was educated at St Catherine's Bramley, a recently founded boarding school for girls in Guildford. The school offered the girls "an education of sound and liberal character, including such useful accomplishments as may seem fitting." After leaving school she moved to Cornwall, where her father was trying his hand at tin mining, and attended the art school in Newlyn established in 1899 by Stanhope Forbes. She began writing and illustrating children's books, and had several published under the name, Irene Payne, using her trademark signature, IMP, on the illustrations. Published titles included Baby Bunting and Co (1905), Burbling Billy and the Bubble Bee and What Happened to Hannah."(foordkelcey).