Sammelband of Seven [7] Facetiae or jeux d’esprits published 
by the “Thief,” William Kid., London, 1830s.

(1.) Teasing Made Easy; A new pocket manual for all who would excel in this fashionable accomplishment and most important branch of the fine arts. By A Popular Female Practitioner.  (2.) Ways and Means; Showing, How to "Make Every Body Comfortable." Arranged on a Novel and Ingenious Plan, and Adapted to the Capacities of Men, Women, and Children. (3.) Six Hints to Bachelors; or, Wherein Does True Happiness Consist? (4.) Kidd's Practical Hints on Etiquette and Politeness: Exhibiting the Various Manners and Customs Observed in Polite & Fashionable Life. (5.) The Book of Refinement; or, Speculum Mundi. (6.) The Book of Elegance; or, the Ladies' Mirror. (7.) Kidd's Practical Hints for the Use of Young Carvers.

Illustrated by Robert Cruikshank, Robert Seymour, et al.] 18mo bound in half calf with marbled boards. Blue endpapers with ownership stamp of [Mr. P. C. Bramkes?]. Very Good condition with paper worn at the board edges and covers, still tight and crisp with bright gilt spine ornament and title Tales. Kidd referred to these works as Facetiae or jeux d’esprits, short publications that met the growing demand for leisure reading. His publications were distinguished by their attention to graphics, and the number and quality of woodcuts meant the cheap periodicals offered bite-sized versions of expensive illustrated books. He believed his customers had a limited attention span, and while published for entertainment, his satires related to etiquette informed the reader of the customs and rules of polite society in the course of mocking them.

Kidd considered himself an underdog, a small publisher battling for a slice of the growing market of leisure readers. He made his niche in pointedly illustrated short volumes, small and cheap but with redeeming graphics that elevated them above similarly priced material. He was adamantly unscrupulous in his practices, taking advantage of ambiguities in laws and authorship. He aggressively misused prominent authors and illustrations names in his advertising, often “Popular Jeux D’Esprit, & c. & c. illustrated By Cruikshank, Seymour and Others”—neglecting to clarify it was Robert Cruikshank, George’s lesser-regarded brother, supplying them. The ongoing battle is memorialized in “A Chapter of Noses” in George Cruikshank’s My Sketch Book, which bears the caption… “Designed, etched & published by George Cruikshank, who particularly requests that his Friends & the Public will observe that he has not any connexion with the works put forth by Mr. Kidd of Chandos Street—except, “The Gentleman in Black,” published some years ago, and that is the only transaction he ever had, or ever intends to have, with the aforesaid Mr. Kidd…”

Kidd welcomed such feuds, which played out in print, as free publicity. Kidd also made a point not to date or attribute his titles, which were often patchworks of pirated texts stitched together by hired hacks. He would also reprint the pirated works with slight variations in the titles to trick buyers, making the works difficult to date or track. Kidd also produced guidebooks which appear more frequently for sale. No copies of any of the titles in this volume are currently offered for sale; 3 do not appear in OCLC; 3 have single holdings, and the most popular has 5.

1. Teasing Made Easy; A new pocket manual for all who would excel in this fashionable accomplishment and most important branch of the fine arts. By A Popular Female Practitioner. London: William Ingham, n.d. Printed at Milton Press, Chandos Street, Strand. [2], [v]-vi, [7]-36 pp. Frontispiece signed “R. S.” OCLC locates one copy at Brigham Young, identified as one of several works in a bound volume titled Facetiae, dated 1831; 1836 penciled on t.p. this copy.

2. Ways and Means; Showing, How to "Make Every Body Comfortable." Arranged on a Novel and Ingenious Plan, and Adapted to the Capacities of Men, Women, and Children. By a Senior Wrangler of Trinity College, Cambridge. London: Published for W. Kidd, by William Ingham. J. Eames, Printer, Covent Garden. n.d. (1837 penciled on t.p. with another illegible mark). 34 pages, misbound but complete: [i]-vi, [7]-12, 17-18, 13-16, 21-24, 19-20, 25-34pp. Closed tear to p. 21. Vignette on p. 34. Frontispiece and title page with engraved vignette signed R. S. OCLC: 1 at Penn.

3. Six Hints to Bachelors; or, Wherein Does True Happiness Consist? By a Volunteer. London: W. Kidd,  Chandos Street, West-Strand; Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black; Dublin: W.F. Wakeman. G. Cowle, Printer.

n.d., [i-v], 6-36pp. Frontispiece signed R. Cruikshank, T. Mosses. Title page vignette, decorative drop capital, vignette on last page. Unrecorded independently, but appears in The Book of the Heart… with the same imprint.

4. Kidd's Practical Hints on Etiquette and Politeness: Exhibiting the Various Manners and Customs Observed in Polite & Fashionable Life. By the Author of "Chesterfield Modernised," &c. London: W. Kidd, n.d. [i]-viii, 9-36 pp. t.p. verso advertising 6th ed of Chesterfield Modernised. Frontis, title vignette. Not in OCLC.

5. The Book of Refinement; or, Speculum Mundi. Interspersed with Anecdotes f the Celebrated Joseph Brummell, Esq., and Other Popular Characters. By one of the Cognoscenti. London: W. Kidd, n.d. (i-ix), 10-49 pp. With half title. Title vignette, with another on the final leaf. OCLC locates 1 later edition at Cambridge.

6. The Book of Elegance; or, the Ladies' Mirror. By a Lover of Nature. London: W. Kidd, n.d. (i-iii), iv-vi, (7)—36pp. Title vignette, with another on the final leaf showing R.S. on a gravestone. OCLC: 4 copies, 1 in U.S.

7. Kidd's Practical Hints for the Use of Young Carvers; with Thirty-Nine Engravings. London: Published for W. Kidd, by W. Ingham, n.d. viii, (9)-33 pp. 37 woodcut illustrations of carving presentations, plus frontis and t.p. More prominent creasing and fingersoil than in the other books. Not in OCLC.

See Maidment, Brian. 2021. “‘Thief of the name of Kidd:’ Unscrupulous Opportunism and Cheap Print in Late Regency London.”  Victorian Popular Fictions,  3.2  (Autumn): 21-44.  DOI:  https://doi.org/10.46911/TVBM5431