1900 Rare Book - The True Annals of Fairy-Land: The Reign of King Herla

An exceptionally decorative edition of The True Annals of Fairy-Land: The Reign of King Herla, profusely illustrated by Charles Robinson with an imaginative mixture of Art Nouveau ornament, fairy imagery, colour work, and intricate pen-and-ink drawings.

Author: Edited by William Canton. Illustrated by Charles Robinson.
Title: The True Annals of Fairy-Land: The Reign of King Herla.
Publisher: London: J. M. Dent & Co., no date (1900s).
Edition: Undated early illustrated edition; later publisher's issue in pictorial cloth.
Language: English.
Pages: xix, 365 pages.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Very good original blue cloth binding, strikingly decorated in black on the front board and spine with an elaborate pictorial design by Charles Robinson. Binding firm and attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good, bright, tight and clean overall. Scattered light foxing, principally to the endpapers and preliminary leaves, as shown. Previous owner's name entered in the decorative printed ownership panel, with a small pencilled date or notation below.
Illustrations: Profusely illustrated throughout by Charles Robinson, including a beautiful colour frontispiece, an elaborate multicoloured title page, numerous full-page and in-text black-and-white illustrations, decorative borders, headings and ornaments, with several designs enhanced in red. Complete.

Estimate: USD 200–250.

The book: The True Annals of Fairy-Land: The Reign of King Herla is a wonderfully conceived collection of traditional fairy tales and legends, including The Marriage of King Herla, Little Snow-White, The Valiant Blackbird, East of the Sun and North of the Earth, The Elves, and many others. The stories are presented as part of the imaginary chronicles of Fairyland, giving the collection an appealing unity and a particularly rich atmosphere of folklore and fantasy.

The visual conception is one of the great attractions of the volume. Charles Robinson surrounds the stories with elaborate borders, ornamental lettering, fairies, flowers, grotesques and highly detailed narrative scenes, creating pages that are often as decorative as they are illustrative. The colour frontispiece, elaborate title pages and extensive pen-and-ink work make this an especially attractive example of Golden Age fairy-book illustration.

The editor and illustrator: William Canton assembled and edited this extensive collection of traditional fairy material, while Charles Robinson provided its remarkable visual identity. Robinson's flowing line, elaborate floral ornament and densely imagined fairy scenes are particularly well suited to the subject, and this volume displays his decorative work on an unusually generous scale.