Vintage Dot-to-Dot Collection – Piffle’s Mother Goose

Piffle's Mother Goose Dot Drawing Book

 

 

Once upon a time, in a land close to home, a puzzle creator went back into history.  Well not really, but David Kalvitis loves dot-to-dots so much that he had started a collection of vintage and newer connect-the-dot books.  David has spent over 10 years searching for these classic books with over 50 in his collection so far.

 

Here is one of the older books in the collection: Piffle's initials from the illustrator

Piffle’s Mother Goose Dot Drawing Book, 1939, softcover from Platt & Munk. The original (by Henry Altemus Company) was hardcover and printed in 1920.  We are currently verifying the illustrator.  His/Her initials are on the covers and a lot of the individual puzzle images.  I believe it is J.L Gallagher as stated in a Google Book search (Catalog of Copyright Entries).  Other puzzle books in our collection with the same initials are Piffle’s Pastime Dot Drawing Book, Billy Spots Puzzle Dots and Willie Wuzzle’s Picture Puzzles.

 

This book is 5 7/8″ x 8″, a common size for the decade.  The puzzles are only 4″ x 5″ but the illustrations around the dot-to-dots are detailed. 

 

Piffle’s Mother Goose has an interesting instruction back cover.  This version says “The DOT Drawing Books.”  However, the original says “The Altemus Drawing Books.”  The puzzle book seems to focus on teaching “young artists” at kindergarten aged.  

Unlike modern dot-to-dPiffles_Mother_Goose_1939_03ots, the instruction for each puzzle is found by reading the little poems under each dot-to-dot.  Below the instruction is the Mother Goose poem that refers to the final image. 

Check back again to see more of David’s vintage dot-to-dot collection.  

2 thoughts on “Vintage Dot-to-Dot Collection – Piffle’s Mother Goose

  1. I have the original 1920’s Hardcover Piffles Mother Goose Dot Drawing Book, Howard E. Altemus. what is it worth???

    • Hi Paula, We have no clue what the books are worth. Once upon a time a sales person told me it is worth what the highest bidder is willing to pay. That’s probably not the help you were looking for, but I never forgot it. 🙂 Did you look on the Henry Altumus website ? There is a contact there that may be able to guide you better. David just collect the books because he loves dot-to-dots. I doubt he will ever sell them. Good luck 🙂

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