1904 Scarce Book - Moonshine Fairy Stories by Lord Brabourne, Illustrated by William Brunton.
(Description)
Author: E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen (Lord Brabourne).
Title: Moonshine: Fairy Stories.
Publisher: London, George Routledge and Sons, Limited; New York, E. P. Dutton and Co., 1904. New Edition (stated).
Language: Text in English
Size: 7.5" X 5.5".
Pages: x-338 pages
Binding: Very original full cloth binding with detailed floral and face motif in black and gilt on the cover and spine (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown, title label on spine scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. A rare find in any condition!
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean, rare light foxing - as shown, small crease to the outer corner of the first illustration - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the frontis, the vignette, and the 7 full-page illustrations by William Brunton.
Estimation : (Scarce with no or few other copies available for sale worldwide).
The book: This scarce edition of Moonshine is a delightful collection of twelve fairy stories weaving magical realism with English folklore. Each tale enchants with a blend of whimsy and moral, depicted through the imaginative illustrations by William Brunton.
The author: Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne PC (29 April 1829 – 6 February 1893), known as E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, was a British Liberal politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under Lord Russell in 1866 and under William Ewart Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and was also Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874. In 1880 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Brabourne.
In a letter of 1971, J. R. R. Tolkien recalled that, as a small child, his bedtime reading was the fairy stories of Knatchbull-Hugessen. He recalled especially being read one story of an ogre who catches his dinner by disguising himself as a tree.
The illustrator: William S. (Billy) Brunton, was born in 1833 in Dublin, son of an engraver and copper-plate printer. He studied at the drawing school of the Royal Dublin Society from 1847 and exhibited figure paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1854 and 1856.
He moved to London to work as a magazine illustrator and cartoonist, contributing to Punch (1859), The Illustrated Times (1861, 1866), London Society (1863, 1865, 1968), Tinsley's Magazine (1867), Cassell's Illustrated Readings (1867), The Broadway (1867-74) and Moonshine (1871), and was on the staff of Fun, where he contributed regular observational comic sketches. He also illustrated children's books, including Tales at Tea-Time by E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen (1872). He signed his work with a heart pierced by an arrow, made with the letters W and B.
He was a Bohemian and a founder of the Savage Club, apparently a very jovial man with an odd but infectious sense of humor, and died young, the implication being from his excesses, in Holloway, London, on 24 March 1878.