1890 Rare Book - Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Illustrated

An attractive illustrated edition of Andersen’s fairy tales in a striking pictorial cloth binding, complete with all six full-page colour plates and more than two hundred additional illustrations.

Author: Hans Christian Andersen.
Title: Andersen’s Fairy Tales.
Publisher: New York: Hurst & Company, Publishers. Undated (1890). The copyright page records copyright 1884 by R. Worthington.
Edition: “A New Translation,” as stated on the title page.
Size: 8 x 5.5 inches.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: 351 pages.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s pale blue-grey cloth binding, elaborately decorated to the front board in gilt, red and black with fairy-tale figures, including a lantern-bearing dwarf and a gilt fairy. The spine is likewise pictorially decorated and lettered in gilt. Some expected fading and toning to the spine, light rubbing and minor wear at the extremities, but the binding remains firm, attractive and unusually fresh in appearance. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good. The pages are generally clean and well preserved, with scattered foxing, chiefly affecting the margins of the title page and the leaves facing the colour plates, as shown.
Illustrations: Complete with six full-page colour illustrations, including the striking colour frontispiece depicting the Little Mermaid. Also profusely illustrated throughout with over two hundred black-and-white illustrations by Harrison Weir, V. Pedersen, M. L. Stone, A. W. Bayes, and others.

Estimate: USD $250–300.

The book: Andersen’s Fairy Tales gathers many of the best-loved stories of Hans Christian Andersen, whose tales helped shape the modern literary fairy tale. This substantial illustrated edition presents the stories in a new English translation and combines six vivid full-page colour plates with more than two hundred illustrations throughout the text.

Among the familiar stories represented are such enduring classics as Thumbelina, together with many of Andersen’s more reflective and imaginative tales. The illustrations range from finely detailed Victorian wood engravings to richly coloured plates, creating an unusually varied visual accompaniment to the stories.

Especially appealing is the publisher’s decorative cloth binding. The pale blue-grey cloth is enlivened with gilt, red and black pictorial decoration, giving the volume the appearance of a classic turn-of-the-century gift book. Complete copies retaining all six colour plates are particularly pleasing.

The author: Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a Danish writer whose fairy tales became some of the most widely read works of nineteenth-century literature. Born in Odense, Denmark, Andersen rose from modest circumstances to international literary fame, producing novels, poetry, travel writing and more than 150 fairy tales.

The illustrators: This edition brings together the work of several important nineteenth-century illustrators, including Harrison Weir, Vilhelm Pedersen, M. L. Stone and Alfred Walter Bayes. Pedersen in particular holds an important place in Andersen bibliography, having been among the earliest artists to illustrate Andersen’s fairy tales.