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King, Madge & Robert.
Street Games of North Shields Children.
Publisher: Priory Press, Tynemouth;
Date of Publication: 1926
Stock Code: 11660
FIRST EDITION, Limited to 120 copies only. Softcover octavo, pp., 40, [4]. Floral border decoration to title-page and limitation leaf, and floral head and tail-pieces throughout. Harlequin floral paper dust-jacket fixed to plain card wraps at flaps, with printed title label to upper cover. Covers rubbed with small loss to paper at corners and to spine; 5 cm split to edge of spine. Contents clean with no annotation or inscriptions. A very good copy in good jacket. The short lived Priory Press were based in a house at Frank Place, North Shields and printed no more than twenty titles, mostly with a local flair of a bustling port and mostly poetry. This anthology contains 21 collected rythmes once common in the streets and playgrounds of North Shields, with notes; many of the rhymes were previously unrecorded, and some are clapping games. From the preface,“These games... change from generation to generation, losing line of verses and having others added to them... those printed here are seldom, if ever, heard now though well known to children less then thirty years ago”. Note that a few of the verses reflect the prejudices of the times and are offensive to modern readers Scarce. £75.00