Bill the Minder

William Heath ROBINSON.

Bill the Minder Written and illustrated by W. Heath Robinson.

London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1912. Quarto. Pp. [i-]xiv[-xvi; 1-]254[-256]. 16 mounted coloured plates (protected by captioned tissue guards), numerous uncoloured illustrations and decorations, some full-page, uncut (as issued), some of the later leaves also unopened.

Condition of contents: occasional light spotting, light red hand-tinting to illustration on p. 241, with some very light offsetting to adjacent leaves, some very light hand-tinting to about five other illustrations, light soiling to a few outer blank margins, otherwise excellent condition.

Original vellum, the upper cover and spine blocked in gilt, cream/yellow silk ties, top edges gilt.

Condition of binding: some marks (see images), spine slightly rubbed, endpapers spotted (see images).

Quite rare thus: Signed limited edition, number '172' of 380 copies signed by the author and illustrator, who in this work "notably in the line drawings, surpassed himself" (ODNB).

"Child or grownup, ... [Bill the Minder] will fascinate you, text and illustrations intermingling into one long delicious fancy that would make the longest and wettest day a blessing to the most restless." (Hildegarde Hawthorne, 'Dawn on the Bookshelf' in The Bookman [1913], vol.36, p.458)

"In Bill the Minder Heath Robinson really found himself. The story is a simple tale or a series of tales about the wanderings of the King of Troy and a boot-cleaner called Bill, who became the Minder (today he would be called a baby-sitter) to the bad-tempered family of a bad-tempered mushroom-gatherer named Crispin. Like most of Heath Robinson's characters, Bill was a solemn little person who took his minding very seriously, even to the extent of studying at the British Museum and in the Minding Room of the Patents Museum at South Kensington. Soon he fame as a Minder spread and he found himself minding a large flock of children. One day they were out in the fields, being minded by Bill, they found an eccentric old man in a haystack. It was the King of Troy, who had been banished from his country. With Bill's assistance, the children set out on a journey, and through a series of adventures they restore this unworldly old gentleman to his throne. In the process they meet some very droll characters. These are the substance of some of Heath Robinson's wittiest drawings" (Lewis, p. 102).

Literature: Lewis, Heath Robinson Artist and Comic Genius (Constable, 1973).