1897 Scarce Victorian First Edition - A Houseful of Rebels in Fairyland

An unusually attractive and scarce first edition of this late Victorian fairyland adventure, illustrated throughout by Patten Wilson and preserved in its striking gilt pictorial cloth binding.

Author: Walter C. Rhoades. Illustrated by Patten Wilson.
Title: A Houseful of Rebels: Being an Account of Three Naughty Girls, and Their Adventures in Fairyland.
Publisher: Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.
Edition: First Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: vi, 231 pages, followed by a 16-page publisher’s catalogue.
Size: 7.5 x 5.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s green cloth binding, strikingly decorated and lettered in gilt to the front board with a large winged fairy figure, with additional gilt decoration and lettering to the spine. Top edge gilt, dark grey endpapers. Light expected rubbing and mellowing to the cloth, with slight fading to the spine and minor wear at the extremities, but the binding remains firm, bright and highly attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good. The text is clean and well preserved with occasional light foxing and age toning. Some of the illustrated leaves show light staining or toning chiefly along the outer margins, apparently associated with the different paper stock used for the plates, as shown. Otherwise a sound, complete and pleasing copy.
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout in monochrome by Patten Wilson, including a striking frontispiece and numerous full-page plates depicting the three young heroines, fairies and their adventures in Fairyland. The frontispiece design of the imposing fairy queen is repeated in gilt on the upper cover.

Estimate: USD $350–400.

The book: A Houseful of Rebels is a scarce and charming example of late Victorian fantasy for children. Its subtitle, Being an Account of Three Naughty Girls, and Their Adventures in Fairyland, introduces three spirited sisters whose ordinary mischief leads them into an increasingly fantastic world populated by fairies, Puck, strange transformations and a formidable fairy queen. The eleven chapters move from domestic comedy into a full fairy voyage, imprisonment, trial and eventual return home.

Published in 1897 by Archibald Constable, the book is especially appealing for its union of Walter Rhoades’s playful fantasy with Patten Wilson’s distinctive illustrations and an exceptionally decorative publisher’s binding. The publisher’s catalogue at the rear is also of bibliographical interest, appearing at the moment when Constable was issuing some of the most memorable fiction of the 1890s, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The author: Walter C. Rhoades was a British writer active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, producing fiction for both younger and adult readers. His work frequently combines adventure, humour and imaginative storytelling, and A Houseful of Rebels is among his most unusual books for children.

Here Rhoades adopts the flourishing Victorian tradition of literary fairyland while giving his protagonists distinctly mischievous and independent personalities. The resulting story belongs to the fascinating period immediately preceding the great Edwardian flowering of children’s fantasy associated with authors such as E. Nesbit, J. M. Barrie and Kenneth Grahame.

The illustrator: Patten Wilson (1869–1934) was a British illustrator and decorative artist associated with the rich visual culture of the 1890s. His work appeared in books and periodicals and often displayed the strong outlines, elaborate patterning and imaginative fantasy imagery characteristic of fin-de-siècle illustration.

His illustrations for A Houseful of Rebels are particularly effective, combining fairy imagery with scenes of childhood adventure. The dramatic winged figure used for the frontispiece and repeated in gilt on the publisher’s cloth gives this first edition much of its immediate visual appeal.