Good Golden Galloping Guide

         Welcome to the April A to Z Blog Challenge!  My theme this year is Relief Printed Alphabet Squared, an alphabet of alphabets illustrated with relief block prints.  Find the master list of participating blogs here and find your next favorite blog somewhere among them.

        I’ve got a generous bunch of G alphabets for you today, and they definitely share some commonalities.  They’re all from the early to mid nineteenth century.  Four of them are relatively detailed wood engravings which include full backgrounds, etc.  Those four all include rhyming verses to teach the letters whilst being amusing and educational.  Today’s first alphabet, The Good Child’s ABC, is different from the others in including a whole variety of G words in its illustration, so G is for Gate, Globe, Goose, and Glass, plus Grapes.  There are also grapes in the other letter I’m offering from this alphabet, because V is for Vine, as well as Violet, Vulture, and Volume.

        The Golden ABC  is definitely not so neatly colored, but I do enjoy its fancy borders.  Here G is for Giraffe, and I think it’s a very handsome giraffe indeed.  For my favorites I actually had several, but decided to go with a few fantasy beings: the U for Unicorn, but also a Z for Zepherus, and I think this portrayal is absolutely unique in all the alphabets I’ve seen!  Zephyrus is the Greek God of the west wind, but this depiction makes him (her?) seem like some sort of fairy.

        The Golden Alphabet of Natural History is not just metaphorically golden.  It’s literally printed with gold ink.  Its G is a handsome Goat, and I’ve included as my second selection the N for Nasua, which I actually had to look up.  Turns out it’s a kind of coati.  (After a childhood watching nature documentaries, not to mention all that alphabetic research, it’s not often that I encounter a creature I’ve never heard of!)  This alphabet includes several rather obscure creatures, which always makes things more fun.  You will also see a golden letter from this 

alphabet (though no picture) somewhere among the icons to come.

        Next is The Galloping Guide to the ABC, to which I’m awarding bonus points for the fun title.  Its G definitely seems to be of its time: a Gentleman with Gout.  But for my favorite I’ve selected the Peacock at P.  Without color you might think a peacock wouldn’t really look like much, but this anonymous wood engraver has done a nice job with the shapes and textures.

        Finally, I couldn’t resist adding The Good Child’s Reward, because it amuses me that in this little pamphlet G is for God.  It’s not really surprising, given that it’s a not-at-all-subtle Christian tract, but it just strikes me as being very bold and ambitious, a little akin to the E for Everything we

saw back at C.  Also, I thought I should include a representative of an alphabet with an agenda (other than just teaching the letters).  I do like themed alphabets, but for the most part I don’t find the hard-core agenda-driven ones so pleasing, so I haven’t included many.  This alphabet’s particular depiction of the Divine does not reflect my own beliefs, but I was glad (and a little surprised) to see Q encouraging the asking of Questions.  And indeed, let’s let that be our moral for today:

        The Good Child must ask plenty of questions in order to learn knowledge and wisdom.

        And also, how about that Golden Rule?  Maybe give it a try, eh?

        So here’s my question for you: have you ever before heard of a nasua?

[Pictures: G, V, hand-colored wood engravings from The Good Child’s ABC, between 1847-1867 (Images from University of Washington);

Giraffe, Unicorn, Zepherus, hand-colored woodcuts from The Golden ABC, 1840 (Images from University of Washington);

Goat, Nasua, embossed wood block prints from The Golden Alphabet of Natural History, 1826 (Image from Toronto Public Library);

Gentleman, Peacock, woodcuts from The Galloping Guide to the ABC, c. 1830 (Images from University of California Libraries);

God, Question, wood block prints from The Good Child’s Reward, 1812 (Images from Toronto Public Library).]