Simple Crafts for Girls N A Poole 1928 First Edition Rare Dust Jacket
 
Title & Bibliographic Details
Title: Simple Crafts for Girls
Author: N. A. Poole (Mrs. T. Reed)
Publisher: University of London Press, London
Printer: Hazell Watson and Viney Ltd
Date: 1928
Edition: First Edition
Illustrations: 55 instructional diagrams
Binding: Original green cloth with original pictorial dust jacket
 
Historical & Bibliographic Context
Simple Crafts for Girls is a practical early twentieth-century instructional manual designed for classroom craft teaching in urban London schools. It reflects the strong Arts and Crafts educational ethos still influential in Britain during the interwar period, when manual skill, creativity, and self-reliance were considered essential components of children’s development.
The structured progression through weaving, embroidery, and elementary bookbinding makes the work particularly valuable as a historical record of craft pedagogy and girls’ education during the late 1920s. Copies retaining their original dust jackets are notably scarce, as such practical classroom books were heavily used.
 
About the Author
N. A. Poole was a craft educator who produced practical instructional manuals supporting early twentieth-century school craft teaching.
 
About the Illustrations
The volume contains 55 instructional diagrams demonstrating weaving techniques, embroidery stitches, and introductory bookbinding processes. These clear working diagrams were designed for classroom use and form an important part of the book’s practical teaching value.
 
Binding & Exterior Condition
A very attractive survival in its original pictorial dust jacket, which is unclipped and remains in good condition with only small edge tears, light creasing, and minor foxing and slight age toning.
The original green cloth boards beneath are exceptionally well preserved, with minimal edge wear and clear black lettering to the front board and spine. The dust jacket has protected the binding effectively and the book presents very well overall.
 
Interior Condition
Internally the book remains in very good condition.
Pages are lightly toned as expected for the period, with light foxing confined mainly to the preliminary leaves and endpapers. The remaining pages are generally clean and well preserved, with just the occasional very small mark. A small inscription is present on the front free endpaper, with no further writing elsewhere. The binding remains firm and secure with no loose pages.
All 92 pages are present and complete, including all 55 diagrams.
 
Physical Details
Pagination: 92 pages
Dimensions: approx. 20 cm × 14 cm × 1.4 cm
Weight: approx. 240 g
 
Rarity & Collector Notes
This book is best classified as: Scarce and with dust jacket:
Rare in this condition because:
classroom craft manuals were typically heavily used 
dust jackets rarely survived 
University of London Press educational titles had modest print runs 
surviving copies are usually library or rebound examples 
jacketed trade copies appear infrequently on the market 
Copies without jackets appear occasionally. Copies with original pictorial jackets are distinctly harder to locate.