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  • Interview with Tessa Chester, Curator of the Renier Collection
  • Louisa Smith (bio)

Tessa Chester, curator of the Renier Collection, titled her 1986 article for Signal Magazine “Boxes of Delight,” describing the collection. Twelve years later, Chester continues to speak with awe about the collection with which she has long been associated. I met with her in March 1998 to discuss the Reniers and their gift to researchers in children’s literature. I had had the opportunity to use the collection in October 1997 but also in the mid-1980s when it was housed in Neil House and even earlier when it was still at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I have a special fondness for this collection, and I am so pleased with the efforts of the staff, the museum, and the Reniers for making this material available to scholars.

Although space is limited, the working conditions are pleasant indeed. A well-lighted room with desk space is provided, and the Bethnal Green Museum itself, in which the collection is housed, has lunch facilities. Thanks to several foundation grants, cataloging this collection of some 80,000 items is moving ahead, and at least 10,000 items are available on the Internet.

According to Marian Keynes, in a talk given at the International Board of Books for Young People conference at Roehamption Institute in November 1997, the Renier Collection is the “largest specialist collection of children’s literature in the country.”

LS:

Who were the Reniers and why their interest in children’s literature?

TC:

Fernand Gabriel Renier was born in Flushing, Holland, in 1905 and came over to England when he was about thirteen. He and Anne Cliff met because they were both interested in collecting matchbox labels. And then they became interested in the political and social cartoons of the 1780–1840 period. I would imagine this would be about the 1930s, and they came across chapbooks and other publications for children. What they [End Page 312] were really interested in was social history, and they realized that a child’s book of an era will tell you a lot about that particular history. And so that’s what made them concentrate on children’s books. And it’s also the reason why the collection is so broad in its range because they were not just interested in first editions or fine bindings, but they were interested in the actual content, everything the item could tell you about that particular period.

LS:

And in any condition?

TC:

Well, they really are mostly in pretty good condition. Where some collectors would not acquire a book scribbled on or colored in by a child, the Reniers would include that because it was a part of the character of the book.

LS:

And primarily it was books to begin with?

TC:

Well, books and ephemeral printed materials. The non-books only came at the end. The majority of the collection is books.

LS:

So they started collecting in about the 1930s?

TC:

1930s to 40s, I would think. They were collecting about the same time as the Opies.

LS:

Do you know how they collected?

TC:

From a variety of sources. They had a lot of friends who were book dealers, and they would get first refusal on things they were looking out for.

LS:

Did those kinds of letters come to the collection?

TC:

There’s not a lot. What we have is a sort of diary they kept from about the 1950s when they lived opposite the British Museum. But that was only for a short period, unlike Peter Opie who kept detailed diaries. It’s a shame because it would be really interesting to learn how they acquired and where. But we know that they used book dealers and, for example, most of the school textbooks were withdrawn, so they went around to local schools and acquired them, and the same for public libraries.

LS:

And they stored all of this in their own home?

TC:

Yes, they lived at 12 Melville Road Barnes in southwest London. And they had a four bedroom, semi-detached house, not especially large by London standards, but the entire house was completely filled...

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