The Little Flower Maker.

Notes

First edition. A rare, beautifully produced work designed by 'Mrs Peachey, a first rate artist in her department... favourably known to the public, by a former work on Modelling Wax Flowers to enable her youthful friends, who have often admired specimens of her skill, to become adepts in the charming art of paper flower making'. The techniques of paper flower-making are briefly explained in the pamphlet, and "in the portfolio there will be found six sheets, each with a coloured representation of a bouquet three sheets showing the actual shapes into which the paper must be cut for the petals of the flowers and in similar manner, the shapes of the leaves of the same flowers, are also given finally the sheet marked A, shows the manipulation requisite in order to perfect the flowers". An advertisement on the last page of the booklet reads; "Mrs. Peachey, by special appointment, Artist in Wax Flowers to the Queen, instructs Pupils in making Wax and Paper Flowers, at 10 Berners Street, Oxford Street. Materials kept for sale at Soho Bazaar, Counters 34 to 39". The Little Flower Maker is considerably rarer than Emma Peachey's better known The Royal Guide to Wax Flower Modelling (1851), presumably not least because the intended youthful audience and loose construction militated against survival intact. A search of online institutional holdings reveals copies at BL and Yale only.