Background:

These colorful children's song prints are based on illustrations by the well-known late-1800s English children's illustrator Walter Crane.  The nursery songs are from England, France and Germany.  Crane's wife Lucy assisted  in the collection and arrangement of the tunes.

Crane's decorative style is very sophisticated for a children's song book, reminiscent of the emerging Arts and Craft style.  The color printing from engraved wood blocks was done by the London printer Edmund Evans who did a lot of work for Crane as well as  Kate Greenaway, another leading children's illustrator from that period.