(Paris): Flammarion, (1948). A complete series of a very special production of les Albums du Père Castor published by Flammarion. One of their most prolific illustrators, Pierre Belvès, has himself cut and pasted coloured paper into numerous designs of household objects, flowers and plants, fruits, etc., which have been beautifully colour printed for the volumes. These designs are models for children to follow in a cut, paste, and collage practice that could turn into wall decoration, etc. Instructions in the first three volumes guide the child to trace on coloured paper and then cut out forms defined by colour in the images presented. Next, with these colour forms in hand, the child is encouraged to create his/her own tableaux on a sheet of white paper -with this encouragement from Belvès: “Bien entendu, vous n’êtes pas obligés de copier les modèles. Vous pouvez choisir les couleurs qui vous plaisent, et même composee des tableaux à votre idée.” Each volume presents an advancement in skill and perception. Volume 4 illustrates the way some of Belves’s students produced their own complicated cut-out designs from folded paper (instruction provided) from elements of a design by Belvès. The student work in this volume borders a large design by Belvès, himself, spread across two pages. The artist, whose talents were noticed by French editor Paul Faucher, became a principal illustrator for the famous Père Castor childrens’ books. Not only did he illustrate story books, such as Hans Christian Andersen’s UGLY DUCKLING, and imaginative “frises à colorier”, but he produced a significant number of art instruction manuals. Truly an avant-garde introduction to art for children encouraging not only technical skills, but unrestrained interpretation. Volume 3 in this series bears the bookplate of noted children’s book collector and dealer, Robin de Beaumont. Ref:17126 WHERE FORM MEETS COLOUR Stapled pamphlets, 21 x 21 cm: 10;10;10;10; with 1 pp. text in each of volumes 1 -3 and 2 pp. text in volume four, all other pages are of illustrations in colour.