This picture book, officially called New Six Penny Toy Book was published in 1873 by Routledge & Sons in London and was state of the art of printing technology in those times. A huge amount of credit for this goes, of course to Edmund Evans, one of the pioneers in modern color printing technology.
Walter Crane shines at this project with settings, drawing technique, selection of colors (still limited as you may expect), typography, and design. For all these reasons, a classic fairy tale about the naughty girl who intrudes on a family home and spoils the joy of the three bears seems a bit in the background. Yes, a good portion of the world knows her by the name of Goldilocks. But in this case, she is called Silverlocks.
Walter Crane stayed pretty faithful to the original story of Goldilocks. He rewrote it to fit into eight scenes (one made of two-facing pages), just right for the format used on the market.
Silverlocks goes by the house where three bears live. We don't know why is she here (apart from the statement she is just wandering around) but we know that the bears just made some food. It's too hot to eat, so they decide to go for a quick walk.
Silverlocks enters the house. Again, there is no specific reason for such aggressive behavior. She is curious, all right, yet this should not give her the right to intrude into one's home. Even more. When she sees soup, she tries a bit. A bit from each plate. Or should we say - bowl?
Breaking in and stealing food is not enough for Silverlocks. She wants to fool around a bit more. She experimented with chairs until she broke one. Tired of non-stop making damage, she decided to go upstairs and lie down a bit.
Of course, we already know the first bed won't satisfy her. She has to try all of them.
When the bears return they immediately notice something being off. Somebody was eating their food. Somebody was messing around with their furniture. And somebody is probably still in!
The three bears go upstairs to check if the intruder is there. Yes, somebody was trying father's bed and somebody was trying mother's bed. What about the little bear's bed?
Silverlocks sleeps in Little Bear's bed like she is in her home! What should they do with her? She definitely deserves some kind of punishment. Father Bear is willing to make dinner of her. Mother Bear is ready to serve her for supper.
Yet the Cub is more merciful. He wants to let her go. And so it is. Silverlocks safely returns home. She is just frightened. And rightfully!
This is how stories were told at the end of the 19th century.
After this scene only the back of the cover with numerous other titles follows.