The Enid Blyton Handkerchief Book

[Madpants]

About 10 years ago I found a book at a table top sale, the lady selling it said she had had it since she was a child and I think I paid £5 for it. I have never found one anywhere (ebay, google etc) like it, so I was wondering if anyone knew anything about it.
It is the Enid Blyton Handkerchief Book. It's 27cm x 26 cm, ring bound and on the inside board is a letter about the book. Each page has a handkerchief on it and a clear cover with text written on it. There are seven characters mentioned in the letter so either one page is missing or Mr Pink-Whistle didn't get his hanky done
From a perusal of the illustrators list in my Mason Willey book, the illustrator for these was Dorothy M Wheeler, she has signed several (but not all) on the toadstools with DMW
I have photographed it for your viewing pleasure

Does anyone know anything about this book please?


Cover



Letter (inside board)



Silky's hanky with text cover



Without text cover

[Tony Summerfield]

Yes, I have seen this book before, but I have never really rated it as a book which is why you can't find it in our Cave of Books. It is a nice item and a neat way of selling some handkerchiefs, but despite its name it can't really be classed as a book.

Otherwise you seem to know all there is to know about it, the handkerchiefs were indeed illustrated by Dorothy Wheeler (she also provided illustrations for a very nice tablecloth) and the inscription tells you that it was produced in 1947. Copies I have seen for sale have been a bit more than the £5 that you paid for it!

[Madpants]

Thank you Tony,

I've never seen any copies anywhere so any info is gladly received
The only reference to it I can find is in google books and the page it's on hasn't been scanned!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for sharing that with us, Madpants. I'd heard of The Enid Blyton Handkerchief Book (perhaps in an article in an old Journal or Green Hedges Magazine?) but didn't have much idea what it was like. A lovely item to have!

Anita

[Lucky Star]

A bit of a collectors item for sure. You were lucky to pick it up so cheaply. It does look like a lovely old item.

[Tony Summerfield]

I have done a bit of homework on this since my last post and phoned a friend who has a copy of the book. It sounds as if your book has got six handkerchiefs in it and hers also had six, but there are actually eight characters mentioned in the letter. She did have Mr Pink-Whistle and Sooty, which you seemed to be missing. The two that she didn't have were Dame Wash-a-Lot and Josie, Click and Bun. She thought her book was complete and it is possible that these books only had six handkerchiefs in them, but obviously there were eight different designs. More investigation is needed!

It is also worth pointing out that there are a number of other books of handkerchiefs, including several Noddy ones.

[Madpants]

Wow thank you Tony
I counted seven in the front purely because I thought Moonface and Saucepan man were on the same one, but Moonface is there without him so this book must be short of both Mr Pink-Whistle and Saucepan man. I have Dame Wash-a-lot and Josie Click and Bun It would be nice to know if it was issued with a random selection of six of the eight, it would make it seem complete if it was deliberate, if you see what I mean

It is a lovely item to have, thank you, sometimes you just get lucky!

[Fiona1986]

I have never really rated it as a book which is why you can't find it in our Cave of Books.

But the cave features Jigsaws, board game and playing cards

A really interesting item Madpants, I'd never heard of 'Handkerchief books' before!

[Madpants]

Thanks Fiona, neither had I until I saw it and not seen one since!

[Muminah]

I never knew anything about Handkerchief Books, but now I do.Thanks for sharing. It's interesting. Are those pictures actually written on real cloth handkerchieves ?

[Madpants]

They are printed onto cotton handkerchiefs yes, but being for children they are quite thin, if you actually used them I think they'd become rather soggy in no time!

[Ming]

I had no idea either that "Handkerchief" books existed. The idea itself is very creative! You are very lucky to own a copy, Madpants.

[Tony Summerfield]

I have never really rated it as a book which is why you can't find it in our Cave of Books.

But the cave features Jigsaws, board game and playing cards

I appreciate that, Fiona, but I have really only covered the tip of the iceberg as far as merchandising is concerned. You have to remember that there were well over 100 companies producing Blyton related items and it is difficult to know what and what not to add. There are a large number of jigsaws that I haven't yet added and if it comes to that there are numerous books that still aren't there. The books are pretty complete up to about 1970, but from there on plenty of books are missing.

What you have to remember is that I am more or less restricted as to what I own myself as I seldom get sent any images to add to the Cave, one of the reasons why there are still over 100 reprint images missing from the main series alone. Another difficulty is that I cannot enter anything without a date and a publisher (manufacturer). For example I happen to know that this Handkerchief book came out in 1947, but I don't know who produced it and the same applies for much of the merchandise which is pretty well all undated.

At present there are already several thousand images in the Cave and I have scanned almost all of these myself. I am currently trying to improve what is there already, by adding things such as wraparound dustwrappers, but this alone is almost a full-time job and there are still only 24 hours in a day!

[Madpants]

I've had a close look at the book and there is absolutely no mention of a publisher on it at all.

[Fiona1986]

Ignore me Tony, I'm just being facesious as always!!