Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Now, my "el cheapo" compact paperback version of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, that I bought with my own money, for personal use, from a travelling bookseller, doesn't have a picture of the Dawn Treader, itself, in it, though I'm sure there is an illustration somewhere around of Eustace, Edmund & Lucy being sucked into that picture in the bedroom.

I've got a HarperCollins paperback version from 2015, where chapter one starts on page 7. Page 12 and 13 tell about the three children falling through the frame and into the sea in the picture, and page 13 has Pauline Baynes' drawing of them being sucked into the picture (with the Dawn Treader as a central point in it).

@varna  I've got a HarperCollins paperback version from 2015, where chapter one starts on page 7. Page 12 and 13

Then that is the same HarperCollins paperback edition that I have, with a plan of the Dawn Treader on page 6 and on p. 42 with shields & spears out, with pennants flying, to signal to ships they wanted Governor Gumpas to believe they had with them. VDT has a purplish cover, maybe to match the purplish smell Lucy said hung about Ramandu's Island & is part of a box set. There aren't any of the copperplate illustrations as in the 1st edition hardback copies, like the first editions I used to borrow from the local library, and some of Pauline Baynes' illustrations seem to have shrunk a bit. 

@waggawerewolf27 

Come to think of it, I don’t know of any editions of the Chronicles which have really large enough illustrations of Pauline Baynes. They all seem to shrink down her artwork. That is why I wish that a large book would be published featuring all of her Narnia pictures in color. I think I had mentioned this before in the topic of Narnia merchandise that is rare or doesn’t exist.  And is there a painting of the Dawn Treader similar to the one in the bedroom in the book that is the size of a normal art print?  Perhaps it is on display in a museum somewhere.  🙂

Posted by: @narnian78

Come to think of it, I don’t know of any editions of the Chronicles which have really large enough illustrations of Pauline Baynes. They all seem to shrink down her artwork. That is why I wish that a large book would be published featuring all of her Narnia pictures in color.

Yes, that would be awesome!  I have editions of the books with the Pen-an-ink linework drawings from before Pauline Baynes had added the colour watercolour washes to them.  I have picked up some of the books in colour editions.  I love the colour rendering, but her illustrations are always lower resolution in the colour editions.

I would love to see a version of the books with Pauline Baynes illustrations at a large size & high resolution.

I commented on this in another thread, I would also love to see collections of paintings by other artists also inspired by Narnia.

I've got an unopened hardback volume of all seven, in a bigger size. It's possible there are bigger illustrations in it.

I wonder who else bought it 20-odd years ago and opened it - and can tell us what size the pictures are 

I used to have a large (about A4) hardback volume of all seven in full color - I bought it from Amazon about 20 years ago. It was available in two versions, with different covers - mine had some kind of forest painting, while the other one had the Narnia map as its cover. But the text in those books was in two columns, so the illustrations got smaller rather than larger.

I've got a set in hardback (from 2014) of all seven in full color, but they are just slightly larger than the paperback version, so the illustrations are roughly the same size. I thought that the quality was lower than in the paperbacks I had seen about 1999. So when I discovered last year on Amazon the first color edition from 1998 (or early reprint, but no other year given), I decided to buy LWW and compare the illustrations to my 2014 hardback version. If the 1998 ones were better, I'd buy them all.

Only half a dozen of the illustrations have some areas with slightly different shades of the same color. All the rest seem to me to be identical. So I'm not going to buy more paperbacks.

I'd also like to see books with larger color paintings. I guess they won't be made - they might be so expensive with all that color printing that the publishers wouldn't think there would be a good enough market for them.

Or perhaps, as a very special Collectors' Edition?

A curious difference between the color 2014 hardback and the 2015 paperback is that the 2015 has the picture of the painting on page 13, to the right when you open the book, while the 2014 has it on page 20, to the left. Both paintings have the ship facing the middle of the book, so they are mirror versions of each other. I don't know which one is the original.

Posted by: @varna

A curious difference between the color 2014 hardback and the 2015 paperback is that the 2015 has the picture of the painting on page 13, to the right when you open the book, while the 2014 has it on page 20, to the left. Both paintings have the ship facing the middle of the book, so they are mirror versions of each other. I don't know which one is the original.

I'm almost certain the version that's on the right when you open the book, with the ship facing slightly left into the middle of the book, is the original. That's how it was in the copy I had as a child (1980s Fontana Lions, I think, but it was actually my sister's book and it's now at her house in Australia), and that's also how it is in the 1970s Puffin paperback edition I have now. Some years ago I had a complete set of the paperbacks with the colour illustrations — I jettisoned those while moving house, regretfully — and the copy of VDT among those had that picture reversed as a mirror image, as you describe. I remember that clearly because I was so surprised to see a familiar illustration the other way around from how I'd always known it to be printed! It was slightly disorienting. 

That said, we can't say for absolute certain which version is the original unless someone has a first edition of the book, which I don't!  

@narnian78, @varna, @coracle, @davidd @pete, @icarus & @courtenay plus anyone else who might reasonably be interested whom I haven't mentioned:  Cheers & Salutations!

Further up the thread I pointed out that maybe traditional Chinese dragon-boats might have had something to do with the Dawn Treader's career in Narnia, though the one I found today online is more like craft than any artistic production.  

Here, in the 2nd picture below, is what I mean about dragon-boats when I came across this ad for "Tibetanware", advertising genuine "Chinese 'feng-shui' craft" just now. It is the sort of knickknack that anyone might have seen throughout the 20th century, to inspire the notion of a picture of the Dawn Treader, especially when both Tolkien & C.S. Lewis mentioned Swan boats, in particular, the Pevensie family's Narnian boat, the Splendour Hyaline. Eventually, I did find a picture of the Splendour Hyaline, though I don't think this one is from the Chronicles of Narnia, themselves. I saw a picture of a swan boat in a Boston public park, but I don't consider that picture shows a craft that would be seaworthy in an open ocean, however dreamy they might look, but I couldn't resist this dreamy third picture of the Splendour Hyaline. 

1.Original cover for VDT     2.Craft Dragon Boat

 3.An online picture I found of the Splendour Hyaline. 

Speaking of different editions of the Chronicles of Narnia, I am sure you have been noticing changes over the years, principally with illustrations and whether they are coloured or not. The first editions of each of the Narnia books came with pictures on the cover, especially The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, which pictured Susan in a skirt & top, & Lucy in a blue dress, the sort which was tied up with a sash at the back. They were frolicking with Aslan in a flowery meadow, and this front cover picture was also mentioned in an unmentionable author's short story take on an elderly "Susan Pevensie". 

My first picture here, was of the original cover of VDT. Even if I can't remember all the other 1st edition covers, these books in hardback form generally came with a coloured frontispiece. In the Horse & His Boy, this frontispiece was of one of those runners preceding a litter in Tashbaan traffic, whose job was to call out "Way, way for the Tisroc/the Tarkheena Lasaraleen/the Narnian King Edmund. He wore a tunic sort of outfit, short at the front to mid-thigh and longer at the back, which I always thought was a strange outfit for a man, even by Narnian standards. I'm not sure whether or not that picture was showing King Edmund and a few friends of the human sort, strolling down a crowded Tashbaan street, rather than someone carried in a litter.

The difference between a first edition & a second edition is that content in the first edition has been revised in some way or added to, for some reason, such as to update or modernise the contents, and therefore has to be treated like a separate publication, with new covers & sometimes new illustrations. A new edition can be because the publisher has changed, such as Geoffrey Bles, who was Lewis' original publisher in 1955, but it is now HarperCollins that holds the publishing copyright, even though the title pages on my "el cheapo" box edition say it was Grafton that published my copies of the Chronicles of Narnia, which has in each book conditions of sale on the back of the title page (recto + verso), stating they cannot be used for trade, lent out, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the publisher's consent, which is why it would be only suitable for my own private use, & therefore unsuitable for either library or formal teaching use. 

A new hardback book that is published, & which stirs sufficient interest, might be republished a year after an original publication date, in a paperback format, with a different cover, and without those lovely frontispieces, even though others of Pauline Baynes' illustrations might remain. Subsequent copies might just be periodic reprints of popular books, noted on the verso of the Title page (the recto), unless a commemorative edition is brought out, such as the Omnibus edition I bought of the Narnia septet which I bought when Walden's VDT was released. Unlike the cover of my "el cheapo" copies, this one has a picture of the Walden Dawn Treader, itself, on the cover, & it gives the publishing information to the left of the title page, directly on the inside of the cover, including the statement that "This edition" was published in 2010 by HarperCollins in London. There is also an overarching Contents list for all the books, starting with MN on page 7.

Each title is included in chronological order. MN's title page is a black & white copy of the original cover illustration of Digory & Polly flying on Fledge (oops Strawberry) from left to right from the mountains down to the plains. By contrast, LWW's title page is a black & white picture of Lucy, arm-in-arm with Mr Tumnus, sharing his umbrella, even though any dedications, such as the LWW one to Lucy Barfield, are at the back (the verso) of the Table of Contents list of chapters. HHB goes further, when between the Title page (recto) & the Table of Contents (recto) is included the 2-page map across the desert from Tashbaan into Archenland. PC, where the title page is a picture of the single combat between Peter & King Miraz, likewise has a 2-page map of Narnia between Cair Paravel and Lantern Waste, showing Beaversdam & Miraz' castle. 

VDT's title page features a black & white copy of Edmund, Lucy & Eustace falling into the picture of the Dawn Treader under sail, whilst the 2-page map is from Narnia to the Lone Islands, showing the point where the Pevensies & Eustace met up with the Dawn Treader, & underneath the Dedication to Geoffrey Barfield, (verso) there is also a plan of the inside of the Dawn Treader. The Silver Chair has for its title page that picture of Jill & Puddleglum riding in Underland on the back of the Witch's horse, whilst Prince Rilian, on the back of his own horse, turns his head to talk to Eustace, who isn't shown. The 2-page map, this time, shows Jill, Eustace & Puddleglum's journey between Narnia & Harfang Castle. Finally, the Title Page for the Last Battle, shows Tash with a terrified Rishda Tarkhan firmly tucked into one of his right arms. Unlike all the other titles in this Omnibus edition, there is no dedication and no 2-page map, either. 

Now, I've explained at length to you, not only what I have access to, in reply to what you have all been saying about what you have all observed, but also info about publishing & the book trade which also might help you when you next visit a bookshop, & which was also what I needed to know both by my own study & also on the job as a librarian, expected to teach something called "information literacy".   I hope this comment isn't too long.