Abroad
by Thomas Crane & Ellen Elizabeth Houghton
Printed and Bound
by Marcus Ward & Co
London ; Belfast ; New York
1882
I love beautifully designed, well-structured books—the kind where everything matters: the overall composition, the typography, the text, the images, the quality of the paper, the binding, and the cover. And the collaborative books between British artists Thomas Crane (1843-1903) and Ellen Elizabeth Houghton (1853-1922) certainly meet these criteria. In their creative partnership, Thomas functioned as the book designer and decorator, and Ellen as the artist of full-size illustrations. One of the results of this collaboration is the children's book Abroad, published by Marcus Ward & Co., a successful specialist in color lithography.