Fenning’s Fairy

         Welcome to the April A to Z Blog Challenge 2023!  My theme this year is Block Printed Alphabet Squared, an alphabet of alphabets illustrated with relief block prints.  Find out all about the A to Z Blog Challenge here, and be sure to follow along with us all month.

        Today’s first alphabet is called Fairy ABC, and it features characters from folk and fairy tales.   Each illustration consists of a large and elaborately decorated capital letter, with the character or characters working around it.  These wood block printed illustrations are hand-colored, and the use of so many different colors - and actually neatly done - marks this as a relatively fancy production.  F is the Fisherman who brought up a genie’s bottle in his net.  My favorite from this alphabet is C for Cinderella - and her Fairy Godmother.  You can also see the A for Aladdin (from another copy of the same little book) in the title illustration from my Theme Reveal post.

        Another F alphabet also uses the letter itself as part of the picture, but in this case the characters have to stretch and contort considerably more in order to fit the shape, making it almost more of a font.  In Fenning’s Spelling Book, F is for Fan, and the strange little person stands next to a fan while posing in the shape of the letter.  In B for Boat, the boat is incorporated into the bottom of the B, and in J for Jar the little person has to be quite an acrobat.  These wood block prints are quite crude, but are so whimsical that they make me smile.

        A bonus alphabet is the animal font by Antonio Frasconi (Uruguay/USA, 1919-2013).  These wood cut prints, too, are rough and stylized, but being modern art, they’re that way on purpose.  I’ve previously posted B, D, J, R, and Y.  Plus the C (Cat) is another part of the title collection in the Theme Reveal Post, the Z will appear in due course, and if you keep your eyes open you’re sure to spot one more from this alphabet as one of the letter

icons to come.  Frasconi’s F is for Fox, and I’ve chosen U for Unicorn as my favorite, which is more detailed than some of the others.  (How appropriate that here in F we’re finding so much fantasy!)

     Finally, there’s the wood block alphabet by C.B. Falls (USA, 1874-1960), for whom F is also Fox.  I shared that F before, as well as M, N, S, U (also for Unicorn), W, X, Y, and Z.  So today I’ll give you the Elephant from E.

        The moral of F is to keep your eyes open for wonders everywhere.  You never know when you might fish up a genie or glimpse a unicorn.

        And also, if you want to be flexible enough to pose as the alphabet, you’d better start stretching now.

        So, what’s your favorite folk or fairy tale?

[Pictures: Fisherman, Cinderella, hand-colored wood block prints from Fairy ABC, 1860 (Images from Toronto Public Library);

Fan, Boat, Jar, wood block prints from Fenning’s Spelling Book, 1846 (Images from Toronto Public Library);

Fox, Unicorn, wood block prints from Antonio Frasconi from Bestiary, 1965 (Image from AbeBooks);

Elephant, wood block print by C.B. Falls from ABC Book, 1923.]