1915 Scarce Book - The Book of New Fairy Tales Illustrated published by Dodge Publishing Company
A scarce and uncommon large-format fairy-tale book from the golden age of illustrated children’s gift books, with eight colour plates and many black-and-white illustrations by Florence Harrison, A. A. Dixon, Ruth Cobb, Harold Robert Millar, and Audrey Watson.
Author: Various authors.
Title: The Book of New Fairy Tales.
Publisher: New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 214–220 East Twenty-Third Street, n.d. [circa 1915].
Language: English.
Size: 11 x 9 inches.
Pages: Unpaginated.
Binding: Very good original grey pictorial boards with mounted colour illustration to front cover, grey cloth spine. Outer and inner hinges slightly worn at endpaper level, but still tight and secure, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content. Contemporary gift inscription dated “Merry Xmas 1915” on the illustrated presentation page.
Illustrations: Complete with all illustrations, including eight full-page colour plates and many black-and-white illustrations by Florence Harrison, A. A. Dixon, Ruth Cobb, Harold Robert Millar, and Audrey Watson.
Estimate: $250–300 USD
The book: A scarce and uncommon fairy-tale anthology published by Dodge Publishing Company in New York, most likely around 1915, as suggested by the contemporary Christmas inscription in this copy. The volume gathers a series of imaginative children’s tales in a handsome large-format production, with an attractive mounted colour illustration to the front board and a richly illustrated interior.
The book is especially appealing for its illustration content: eight full-page colour plates, numerous black-and-white illustrations throughout the text, and contributions by a fine group of early twentieth-century illustrators. The stories include fairy, brownie, princess, and magical adventure themes, with titles such as “The Magic Chair” and “Davie’s Fairy Gift,” reflecting the Edwardian taste for dreamlike, moral, and fantastical children’s literature.
The authors: The volume brings together a selection of fairy tales by various authors, in the tradition of early twentieth-century children’s gift books. These collections often combined moral tales, magical adventures, nursery fantasy, and fairy stories intended for family reading and holiday presentation.
The illustrators: Florence Harrison, A. A. Dixon, Ruth Cobb, Harold Robert Millar, and Audrey Watson were part of the rich British and American illustrated gift-book tradition of the early twentieth century. Their work gives the volume a varied and charming visual character, from delicate fairy scenes and decorative line drawings to full-page colour plates filled with fantasy, childhood, and adventure.