This is a very special book, published by Frederick Warne & Co. in London and New York around 1880. As the title already suggests, it's focused on Kate's picture mastery, although there is also some text.
One of the characteristics of the book is the application of the decorative borders. All pages (except a few completely empty ones) have them.
Such books were meant as presents. They were personalized by adding the name of the owner and got real value when the names of his friends were added to appropriate places - at the dates of their birthdays, of course.
Vignettes are the signature art by Kate Greenaway. This book presents several hundreds of them. Children and flowers are the main theme. Especially children with flowers.
The frontispiece is already the first of twelve full-color pictures - one for each month of the year. This one presents a scene from January.
The second inside title page offers more info on the book. This is the first and only place where verses written by Mrs. Sale Barker are mentioned. As you'll see soon each date of the year is equipped with an accompanied verse by Mrs. Barker and a vignette by Miss Greenaway.
The next vignette is placed on the top of the page with lines. These lines are meant for notes about the owner and important people in his/her life. We'll see more of them very soon but none with vignettes. Why is this one an exception? Because it's a facing page to the real start of the book where dates of the year with songs and pictures follow.
Each of the pages presents three dates but the first one used the top third of the space for another title, so there is a place only for the 1st and 2nd of January. Consequently, the top third of the facing page was used for another vignette.
This is the beginning of January.
The next page continues with dates, this time with three days per page, as the rest of the book.
The page with dates from the 3rd to the 5th of January is facing the page with lines for notes:
This is how the so-called spread (open book as it's typically seen by the reader) looks:
We will continue with the next dates but without the pages where only lines are drawn. They are all the same and your time is precious.
February
The picture presenting February shows children dancing. February marks the end of winter and dances are among the oldest rituals which symbolically send the winter away. They make us warm too.
March
March is already warmer and there are more activities outside what is portrayed in this classic Greenaway style with her own view on children's fashion.
This full-color picture is on the facing page to the next one with the last day of February and the first two of March. The last day of February is the 29th which proves that this book is not aiming for a specific year as the almanacs or calendars but is meant to keep the relevant dates all in one place, including of course, the birthdays of people born on February 29th.
Maybe you noticed a small capital letter at the right on the bottom of some pages. The one above is letter D. Such letters are used by printers to mark the printing sheets. You should know that pages are not printed separately but in sheets typically by 16 and cut later before binding. The marks are there completely for internal information and it's very rare to see them.
By the way, while such books are already out of fashion for many years, we can still use them in creative ways to make something new, special, and inspiring. Thanks to the fact that the whole book is in the Public Domain, we can, for instance, create a page with verses for each month, like it's used in this address with printable calendar pages for March.
April
The month of April is known for its changing weather and Miss Greenaway decided to present it with an umbrella which could protect us from the sun and the rain.
May
May is the most popular month for many of us. It presents spring in full swing, with warm but not too hot weather, plants are blooming and the weather is perfect for picnics. There is also a sense of coming vacations in the air.
June
In this case, the dates are not facing the page with lines but the page with a full-color presentation of the month of June.
Kate used June as the opportunity to present one of her favorite activities and childhood memories: a tea party.
The facing pages (spread) in this case look like this:
In my opinion, such placement of the pages ruins the whole idea of the birthday book. I am pretty sure that Kate Greenaway didn't want to put the pages this way. Somebody else did. Somebody who didn't spend a lot of time thinking.
Let's move on.
July
Again, the designer of the book decided to face the dates with vignettes by Miss Greenaway and verses by Mrs. Barker with a full-color page with illustrations presenting the next month.
The month of July is most closely associated with vacation. Spending time carefree on the beach, with your friends, just enjoying, is the ultimate presentation of July.
August
In August summer is already parting. Slowly but surely. We are not worried too much because the year was already generous to us. We can pick fruit like the kids in the picture above or slowly plan the rest of the year.
September
We are back to school! The weather is still nice and school tasks are not too demanding so there is plenty of time for fun activities.
October It's time for grape harvest! Nature is offering so much now. Grapes are just a tiny share of its abundancy.
November
It's time to wear warmer clothes. Weather is still nice yet a bit cold.
December
December is a month of celebration. But it's better to stay indoors. Still plenty of fun available.
Here is an exception of the rule. Instead of 31th December there's another vignette by Kate Greenaway with some additional place fo the notes. It's a very special day of the year after all.
We have just another spread of lines for notes and an empty page with decorative border.