The Ludford Box, and, "a Christmass-Box" Their Contribution to Our Knowledge of Eighteenth Century Children's Literature (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Ludford Box, And, "a Christmass-Box" Their Contribution to Our Knowledge of Eighteenth Century Children's Literature What has come to be known as the Ludford Box arrived at ucla with the collection of Elvah Karshner in 1960 and Wilbur Smith has justly described it as one of the plums in this rich lot.1 It consists of a home-made wooden box, about the size of a standard cash - box, neatly covered in Dutch flowered paper, and containing, when it was bought, eleven children's books in twelve volumes, ranging in date from 1746 to 1781 (frontispiece).2 No provenance was given other than an undated typed description by the Los Angeles bookseller, Tone Price, who presumably sold the box to Mr. Karshner. In addition to listing the contents, she writes glowingly of the unusual character of this family collection which she describes as the Juvenile Library of John Ludford and his sister Eliza beth Juliana. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.