"There's only one pretty child in the world,…

“There’s only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it” is a popular Mother’s Day saying that has been printed on many images. Authorship is uncertain.

“There is only one beauty, and every mother has it” was published in an 1867 book. “There’s only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it” was published in A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Chester (1886). “There is only one beautiful baby in the world, says the cynic, and every mother has it” was published in The Photographic News in 1897. “There is only one perfect baby and every mother has it” was published in Young Woman’s Journal in 1898.

The saying is often described as a “Cheshire proverb.” Since the 1940s, however, it has frequently been described as a “Chinese proverb”—probably an error for “Cheshire.” There is no evidence that the saying is Chinese.

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The Black Phantom: Or, Woman’s Endurance:
A Narrative Connected with the Early History of Canada and the American Revolution
By Charles Shrimpton
New York, NY: James Miller
1867
Pg. 253:
We are not here going to introduce any remarks as to the superlative beauty of this or that baby, or that there is only one beauty, and every mother has it; but we do say, that nature really did make an extra effort when Lillian was produced.

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A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Chester
English Dialect Society, Volume 16
By Robert Holland
London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trubner & Co.
1886
Pg. 454:
There’s only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.

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17 December 1897, The Photographic News, pg. 822, col. 1:
There is only one beautiful baby in the world, says the cynic, and every mother has it.

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January 1898, Young Woman’s Journal, “The babies! What of them?” by Mrs. Emma Goddard, pp. 3-4:
The old saying, “There is only one perfect baby and every mother has it” is true of both boys and girls, tho’ their spheres differ from babyhood.

17 November 1912, The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “Picayunes,” pg. 8, col. 5:
There is only one perfect baby in the world, and every mother has it.

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The PTA Magazine

Volume 40
1945
Pg. 9:
There’s only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. — Cheshire Proverb

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Virginia Four-H Club Letter
Volumes 29-34
1945
Pg. ?:
There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. — Chinese Proverb.

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The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases
By Burton Egbert Stevenson
New York, NY: Macmillan
1965, ©1948
Pg. 336:
There’s only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
J. C. BRIDGE, Cheshire Proverbs, p. 119. (1917)

Google Books
Mom’s the Word:
The Wit, Wisdom, and Wonder of Motherhood
By Allen Klein
Berkeley, CA: Viva Editions
2013
Pg. ?:
There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
CHINESE SAYING

Twitter
Village Maternity‏
@VMatMidwives
“There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.” ⁰- Chinese Proverb https://www.instagram.com/p/BUErqKdhVxJ/
7:42 AM - 14 May 2017