A few weeks ago, kind Dough Harris sent me an extract from a book he recently acquired.

Here is how he describes it:

An interesting matchbox-styled booklet dropped through my letterbox today. Supposedly part of the ‘Safety [or Safest – see both sides of the box below] Series for Children’ (though I can find no other part of any series).

In 1863, Joseph Causton and his son, also named Joseph, developed the printing company which was to become the large and well known Joseph Causton and Sons Limited.
In 1867 the company was described as being a wholesale stationer and printer with a large warehouse at Southwark Street, London.
Joseph Causton was also a politician. He became a Councillor for Billingsgate, East London in 1868 and Sheriff for London and Middlesex in 1868. The pinnacle of his career came when Queen Victoria opened Blackfriars Bridge and Holborn Viaduct in 1869 and he was knighted at Windsor Castle to mark the event. The company name now became Sir Joseph Causton and Sons Limited. Sir Joseph died just two years later, but his sons, Joseph, Richard, and James, continued as partners of the firm.
The company moved to a large new printing works in Eastleigh, Hampshire in the 1930s. The printing works made labels for household brands including Marmite and Guiness. During The Second World War they printed secret maps for the Government in a specially bricked off part of the building.
By the end of the 1960s Sir Joseph Causton and Sons Limited fortunes were in decline. In the mid 1970s the company was losing money but it was not until 1984 that the firm was taken over by Norton Opex. They in turn were acquired by Bowater and Sir Joseph Causton and Sons ceased trading.
The Causton name has survived only as Causton Envelopes Ltd. and Causton Cartons, which is a subsidiary of the Bowater Group, manufacturing cartons for the pharmaceutical industry.
Credit for info gathered to Mark Matlach.

The publisher appears to be ‘Grant Richards‘ – based upon his propensity for miniature books: at least one of which shared the services of Jessie Pope the verse writer for London Characters.

Illustrations are by the celebrated illustrator and poster artist John Hassall

There are three characters in all who merit limerick verse celebration as per the photos here: