5. A friend of youth.
W., illustrator.
Lectures at My School or Playground Conversations.
London: William Darton, junior, 1810.
This early picture of boys enjoying themselves at a swimming
hole appears in a book describing sports and country life, not the
miseries of boarding school life as the title suggests.
The artist’s identity remains a mystery, even though
he had a distinctive style and worked for a very famous nineteenth-century
children's book publisher. Only a few of the blocks he cut were signed: “W.” He
seems to have had an affinity for genre scenes, having produced a volume
of London cries and another of urban personalities.
Various examples of W’s vigorous wood engravings are reproduced
in Lawrence Darton’s The Dartons: An Annotated Check-list
of Children’s Books issued by Two Publishing Houses, 1787-1876
(London/ New Castle, Delaware: The British Library/ Oak Knoll Press,
2004).