Quarto. 83, 16pp + 76 plates. An elaborate instruction manual for kindergarteners (or instructors of kindergarteners) in the practicalities and philosophies of Friedrich Froebel's "gifts." The holistic, experiential learning emphasized here foreshadows modern art's emphasis on significant form, and many such artists received their early educations under Froebel's auspices, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Buckminster Fuller. That each gift's description is subdivided into "Forms of Life," "Forms of Beauty," and/or "Forms of Knowledge" emblematizes the sort of universalism trenchant in the ideas of the emerging avant-garde. In any case, the approach is more sympathetic to children, encouraging the instructor to "enter fully into the spirit of the pupil's sphere of thinking and acting" (28). This the last edition Milton Bradley issued with plates appendixed, rather than integrated, suggesting a more pragmatic intent to the production. Plates printed in black or sepia, and show in series the progression of gifts from cutting to embroidery to paper folding. Plate L with additional "La" and "Lb" to show differences between the "Florence School of Sewing" and the "Winona School of Sewing." Wiebé was an early advocate for Froebel's methods in the United States, after spending much of his career as the first professor of music at Vassar. Bound in full gray cloth over boards with decoration in blind and titling in gilt. Sunning to spine, mild bumps to corners, scattered motes of foxing to interior, else very good.