Description

Oblong narrow 8°. [9] with colour folding plates between 10 x 11 cm and 77,5 x 11 cm (4 x 4.5 inchesand 30.5 x 4.5 inches), original card wrappers with printed title (light foxing, old cancelled library stamp on the inner side of the cover, soft folds in the corners, wrappers slightly stained and rubbed, otherwise in a good used condition).

A traditional didactic children’s poem about animals is accompanied by high quality illustrations by a painter and sculptor Tone Kralj. The book tells a story about a mouse, which is caught by a cat, in the next verse a cat is caught by a rabbit, the rabbit is caught by a fox, the fox is caught by a wolf, the wolf is caught by a bear, the bear is caught by a lion, and the lion is caught by a hunter. Each verse, adding a new animal, repeats the previous row of the food chain and forces the reader to remember the animals and how they follow.

The narrative, which escalates with each page and verse, is placed in juxtaposition to original folding illustrations, which follow the verses and become larger and larger with each chapter, always adding the new part of the story, but repeating the previous in the folding part.

The illustrations were made by a Slovenian painter and sculptor Tone Kralj (1900-1975), known for his mural paintings and sculptures, as well as for his book illustrations. Schooled at the academy in Prague as a sculptor between 1920-23, he continued his studies in Vienna, Paris and Venice.

Before and during WWII, Kralj lived in the area, belonging to the Fascist Italy (Gorizia and Trieste area), where he was painting large murals in Slovenian churches with a strong anti-Fascist iconography, which was never discovered or destroyed by the Italians. The characteristics of Kralj’s art are monumental figures with heavy shadows, made in the tradition of art deco.

References: OCLC 439013609.