Knightly Lays of Knightly Days

Toledo, Ohio: Willys Overland Company. Printed by Caslon Press, Toledo, Ohio, 1926. Wraps (mid-weight semi-flexible card). Two staples. . Very Good. Extraordinarily charming car company promotional book largely composed like a children's book, with modified nursery rhymes and almost everything rendered in verse, with color plate illustrations such as one would find in a children's book on all the rectos, 24 of these in all, accompanied, of course, by clever doggeril. The car company or brand was Willys-Knight, the corporate owner, Wilys Overland Company. Very scarce -- no copies located on OCLC First Search! Circa 1926. Oblong, 19 by 29 cm. Unpaginated, 48 pages, plus wraps. Illustrations do have some variety, employing humorous exaggeration and caricature at times, a cartoonish sensibility often, but also some illustrations taking their cue from heroic adventure tales. By color plate, we would qualify this by adding that the palette was limited, with use of greens, oranges and pinks and reds, mainly, as well as black. Most of the illustrated plates are one larger image, but a few have several smaller illustration on the page. Versos generally have a centerpiece with larger print, the text in verse, surrounded by smaller boxes with verse as well. Reading the verse of the rectos provides the more practical information about the car. The rear cover features six cameo illustrations of European monarchs who had bought the company's products. These, too, are accompanied by short verse. Monarchs include King Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II -- in other works, monarchs no longer around in 1926. The Willys-Knight car was made between 1914 and 1933. Willys Overland, the corporate entity, continued on to the 1950s as an independent company. It was the original maker of the jeep, which of course continues to be made, with a good number of intermediary corporate overlords between Willys Overland and today's Chrysler. Condition: light film of soil, some erasable, on wraps. A small area of dampstain or rippling of leaves from water exposure, upper margin. A tiny closed tear, first text leaf. Generally clean and bright. Easily VG.