Magnets Bulbs and Batteries, Series 621

Magnets Bulbs and Batteries, 1962  was the 1st book to be issued in series 621 – Junior Science –  and was originally issued with a dustwrapper.  It was written by Newing and Bowood and, like all the books in this series, was beautifully, lovingly illustrated by Harry Wingfield.  If you aren’t familiar with the series, all four of them are beautiful books, which is not what you might expect from the titles.  But Wingfield’s warm, nostalgic watercolour illustrations tenderly depict the cotton-reels, paperclips, corks and tin cans of a 1960s/70s childhood whilst at the same time clearly illustrating the experiment presented on each page.  These books are also remarkable for their depiction of boys and girls equally active in their experiments with motors, cogs, wind-socks and circuits.

This copy:

This matt copy would be in very good  condition inside and out but for the fact that it has been placed on a grubby shelf and the surface dirt has transferred to the covers – front and back (see photos).  A pity because actually the book has had very little wear and clean, tight pages but for a very small inscription to the front free endpaper .  It dates to the 1960s and has the original price of 2/6 printed inside.