1911 Rare First Illustrated Edition by Anne Anderson - Aucassin and Nicolette
An exceptionally attractive 1911 edition of the medieval romance Aucassin and Nicolette, translated by Harold Child and beautifully illustrated by Anne Anderson with six tissue-guarded colour plates, presented in an elaborate gilt and coloured decorative binding.
Author: Anonymous; translated and edited with an introduction by Harold Child.
Title: Aucassin and Nicolette.
Publisher: London, Adam and Charles Black, 1911.
Edition: First edition of this illustrated edition.
Language: English.
Pages: xliii, 132 pages.
Size: Octavo (8vo).
Binding: Very good original cream cloth binding, richly decorated on the front board and spine with elaborate floral and geometric designs in brown and pale blue, with gilt titles. Top edge gilt. Binding firm and attractive, with light toning and minor rubbing at the corners and spine extremities, as shown. A particularly handsome example of an Edwardian illustrated binding. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good. Text block tight and generally clean and bright, with some toning to the endpapers and occasional light spotting or minor age-related marks. Decorative borders throughout, printed in silver for the introduction and in gold for the main text.
Illustrations: Complete with six beautiful tissue-guarded colour plates by Anne Anderson, including the frontispiece, each surrounded by an elaborate decorative border.
Estimate: USD 250–350.
The book: Aucassin and Nicolette is one of the most celebrated works of medieval French literature, composed in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. Unique in form, it is a chantefable, or “sung story,” alternating passages of prose and verse to recount the adventures of two young lovers separated by family opposition, imprisonment, warfare and circumstance before their eventual reunion.
This sumptuous 1911 edition combines Harold Child’s translation with an unusually refined Arts and Crafts inspired typographic design, decorative borders in metallic inks and six romantic colour illustrations by Anne Anderson. The combination of its richly decorated binding, gilt top edge, tissue-guarded plates and elegant page design makes it a particularly appealing example of the lavish illustrated gift books produced in Britain during the early twentieth century.
The illustrator: Anne Anderson (1874–1952) was a prolific Scottish illustrator best known for her fairy tales, children’s books and romantic literary subjects. Working during the Golden Age of Illustration, she developed a graceful and immediately recognizable style distinguished by delicate figures, flowing costumes and softly coloured compositions. Aucassin and Nicolette belongs to the earliest period of her book illustration career and is often cited among the first major books to feature her work.
Anderson went on to illustrate numerous collections of fairy tales, legends and children’s classics, and her work is today increasingly collected alongside that of contemporaries such as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Jessie M. King.