Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Jane Pinkney (born 1948)

Price

£850

Signed

Signed

Medium

Watercolour

Dimensions

3 ½ x 6 ½ inches

Illustrated

Drawn for Mouse Rhymes: To Bed, To Bed, Munch Munch and Come and Play, an unpublished Nursery Rhyme box set of three books commissioned by Macmillan, circa 1995

Exhibited

'Jane Pinkney: A Retrospective', Chris Beetles at Nunnington Hall, Yorkshire, August-September 2011;
'The Illustrators: The British Art of Illustration 1807-2026' Chris Beetles Gallery, London, November 2026-January 2027, no 36

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?
The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.
And shortly after that,
There came a little wren,
And sat upon her chair,
And put it on again.