What I found at Renaissance Books in Victoria...

So a little while ago I went to go to Victoria with my good friend Brandy from the R.A.T. and it was pretty great. Some things highly recommended: Going to 'Miniature World' and the BC Museum, but of course I could not go somewhere without checking out all of their... booooooooostores.... So after going to several recommended stores which were all very lovely, I happened to bump into one that was not recommended (and those that you find on your own are of COURSE always the best ones...) They are a fine used bookstore called Renaissance Books and are located at 14 Bastion Square in Victoria, should you ever find yourself on this lovely part of Vancouver Island.

I was in there for a pretty long time admiring all sorts of books, and one of the things that I was struck by immediately was not their Children's book section, which was ok, but their 'Illustration and Illustrated books' section. I have to say I don't think I've (sadly) ever come across a section dedicated to this. Needless to say... I was pretty impressed.

I posted a couple of my purchases above, a copy of 'Punch' a satirical English magazine published around 1915 that featured many many famous illustrator's work. One person I've already written about on this blog who contributed many illustrations to 'Punch' was John Tenniel the illustrator of the original 'Alice in Wonderland.'

My other purchase was 'The Illustration of Books' by David Bland. I have not had the chance to read it yet, but it looks pretty promising.

Last but not least, I found this great copy of one of my beloved illustrated books from my younger days,... 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Hurray! Look how great the illustrations are! And remember... this is before the days of Photoshop, so that moving car images with the muliple exposure look, is probably exactly that. Illustrated by John Burningham... I will soon have to post some more images by him, because as it turns out... he's amazing! What do you know...