Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar

SnakTattered but still lovely

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Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar

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12wonderY
Redigeret: aug 5, 2019, 8:38 am

This is an old story that I just vaguely remembered until I started researching Stephen Gammell. I ordered a handful of his books from the library, and this was one of them.

He did a black and white version:



The story is an old English tale, and it is quite stupid. Mr. Vinegar goes off trading one thing for another, but he always trades down. The enchanting concept, for me, was that they lived in a pickle jar.

So I went searching for the half-remembered image that pleased me so much.

There are three versions of the story here on LT.

A Welsh author, Euan Cooper-Willis, told it a while back, and copies can be quite dear, and a good cover image can't be found:



This may be the one I recall, but I thought the jar/bottle was bigger and clear.

Flora Annie Steel is another collector of these tales, and I may have this in a collection I own. But the single tale was also published by itself. This is the picture on the cover, and it is by Arthur Rackham:



Yes, their home is called 'Piccalilli Cottage.'

It appears that children's magazines have used the tale over the years, and that might be what I'm remembering. I'll post more images again later.

22wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 11:35 am

I love the detail and the color in Rackham's illustration. I do have English Fairy Tales, and it has this and one more illustration. There are possibly more he painted for this story, but all I'm finding is one inconsequential B&W.

I delight in Stephen Gammell's Appalachian depictions in some other books, but his drawings here don't really satisfy. Appears no one else treasures them either, as I can't find any interiors of his book. His pickle jar, though is a nice old-fashioned one shaped like a crock and with a fitted lid.

This is the closest I can find to describe it:



It's a nice size and has a door and steps up to it.

32wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 11:37 am

Here's an image with no provenance, though the site itself is in Russian:

42wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 11:41 am

This looks interesting, but certainly not available at my library and possibly not at abebooks either:



The author/illustrator is not found on LT either.

52wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 11:49 am

Ah! Here is Rackham's depiction of the accidental breaking of the pickle jar, and the full text of the story:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/English_Fairy_Tales/Mr._Vinegar

62wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 11:52 am

As I mentioned, children's magazines have published the story.

Here is one by Storytime Magazine:

72wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 11:57 am

George Hauman illustrated Stories That Never Grow Old and contributed one Mr. Vinegar illustration:

82wonderY
Redigeret: aug 6, 2019, 12:02 pm

Just to be complete, I'll show one by Faith Walker (apparently not the correct person), though it's almost as silly as the story:

92wonderY
Redigeret: aug 6, 2019, 12:21 pm

Herbert Cole illustrated Fairy Gold more than a century ago:



I like it!

Oh my! Google his name and look at the image collection!

102wonderY
aug 6, 2019, 12:27 pm

And I'm going to wrap up my survey with a lovely vintage illustration offered from an etsy store:

11MrsLee
aug 8, 2019, 9:50 am

I don't think I have ever heard of Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar, but Victor Borge told a wonderful version of "Papa's always Right" by Hans Christian Anderson on a children's album that I listened to again and again when I was young. It is rather the antithesis of this story I guess, because in the end, all of Papa's terrible bargaining and such earns him a kiss from his wife, rather than a beating.

122wonderY
aug 14, 2019, 11:18 am

By the way, I'm doing a thread dedicated to Stephen Gammell in another group. It's way too quiet over there. Can I recruit some picture lovers to come and play over there too?

http://www.librarything.com/groups/picturebooks

13fuzzi
aug 27, 2019, 12:46 pm

>10 2wonderY: that one looks like it came from a Mother Goose treasury!

Nice illustrations, but the story is new to me.