Background:

These prints of the poem "The Three Little Pigs" are from Walter Crane's New Toy Book.   Crane (1845-1915), who established a reputation as a children's illustrator, was one of the earliest contributors to George Routledge's "toy books" which began publication in 1865.  He was one of the first children's illustrators to feature text and pictures together on a page, whereas most other books would interleave picture pages with text pages.

Crane prints are notable for the way each was signed - a Crane within a capital letter "C".

It was said of his work "Crane was first and foremost a designer.  His designs were simple and bold and used only bright, unmixed colors."  Edmund Evans was both the engraver and printer for Crane's works.