ABSTRACT
Recalling his appointment in 1820 as master of the new infant school in Spitalfields, Samuel Wilderspin, the infant school pioneer, described [searching his] ‘wife’s work-box ... for bits of thread, cotton, calico, silk, velvet, &c.;– afterwards, Dutch toys of animals were procured; but as these could not be obtained in sufficient variety, recourse was had to picture-shops, and, finally, Mr. Darton was induced to publish an appropriate selection of prints.1
