1894 Rare Book - Andersen's Fairy Tales Illustrated by A.W. Bayes

A beautifully illustrated 1894 Victorian edition of Hans Christian Andersen's beloved fairy tales, featuring sixty illustrations by A. W. Bayes, three charming full-page colour plates, and a striking red and olive-green pictorial cloth binding with gilt lettering.

Author: Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). Translated by Dr. H. W. Dulcken.
Title: Fairy Tales and Stories (Andersen's Fairy Tales).
Publisher: London: George Routledge and Sons, Limited, Broadway, Ludgate Hill; Manchester and New York, 1894. Printed by Cowan & Co., Limited, Perth.
Edition: 1894 illustrated edition.
Language: English.
Pages: vii, 512 pages.
Size: 8 x 5.5 inches.
Binding: Good to very good original publisher's red cloth, richly decorated in black, olive green, and gilt. The front board features an elaborate floral design surrounding a circular fairy-tale illustration, with gilt titles and complementary pictorial decoration to the spine. The rear board bears a small black floral ornament. Light rubbing and wear to the extremities, with slight wear to the front joint, which remains tight. An attractive and well-preserved example of late-Victorian decorative bookbinding. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good, with scattered foxing, chiefly affecting the preliminary and final pages. The main body of the text is generally clean and well preserved. A small vintage bookseller's label is present on the front pastedown.
Illustrations: Sixty black-and-white illustrations by A. W. Bayes, as stated on the title page, together with three full-page colour illustrations, including the colour frontispiece. Decorative chapter ornaments and illustrated title page.

Estimate: USD $175–200.

The book: Published in 1894 by George Routledge and Sons, this handsome Victorian collection brings together an extensive selection of the celebrated fairy tales and stories of Hans Christian Andersen. Translated into English by Dr. H. W. Dulcken, the volume includes such enduring classics as The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, The Tinder-Box, The Red Shoes, The Little Match Girl, and The Emperor's New Clothes, alongside many lesser-known tales. Across more than five hundred pages, Andersen's distinctive combination of enchantment, tenderness, humour, and moral reflection unfolds in a richly varied collection.

The book is especially appealing for its illustrations and its wonderfully decorative original binding. The sixty black-and-white illustrations by Alfred Walter Bayes bring Andersen's characters and imaginative worlds to life, while three full-page colour plates add further visual charm. The elaborate red and olive-green cloth cover, with its floral ornamentation, fairy-tale vignette, and gilt lettering, is a particularly attractive example of late-nineteenth-century British pictorial book design. A delightful addition to a collection of Victorian illustrated books, classic children's literature, or decorative publisher's bindings.

The author: Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a Danish author whose fairy tales became among the most widely read and translated works of children's literature. Born in Odense, Denmark, Andersen rose from modest beginnings to international literary fame, creating stories that combined elements of folklore with his own remarkable imagination. His tales frequently explore themes of longing, transformation, kindness, sacrifice, and the search for belonging, appealing as much to adult readers as to children.

Unlike traditional folk tales collected from oral sources, many of Andersen's best-known stories were original literary creations. Works such as The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, and The Steadfast Tin Soldier helped establish the modern literary fairy tale and have inspired generations of artists, illustrators, writers, and readers throughout the world.

The illustrator:

Alfred Walter Bayes (1832–1909) was a British painter and illustrator associated with the flourishing tradition of Victorian illustrated literature. His detailed compositions, expressive figures, and narrative sensitivity made his work particularly well suited to fairy tales and imaginative fiction. His illustrations for Andersen's stories reflect the nineteenth-century enthusiasm for bringing classic literature to life through carefully composed engravings.

In this edition, Bayes's illustrations complement Andersen's storytelling with scenes ranging from the whimsical and fantastical to the deeply moving. Together with the decorative publisher's binding and the additional colour plates, they give this 1894 volume much of its enduring visual and collectible appeal.