1925 Rare Fairy Book by Marion St. John Webb - The Pond Fairies

An enchanting and increasingly scarce early fairy book by Marion St. John Webb, beautifully illustrated by Margaret W. Tarrant with six full-page colour plates and delicate blue line drawings throughout.

Author: Marion St. John Webb.
Title: The Pond Fairies.
Publisher: London, The Modern Art Society Ltd., no date (circa 1925). Bibliographies of Margaret Tarrant’s work generally date The Pond Fairies to 1925, although some later impressions are catalogued circa 1928.
Edition: Early edition.
Language: English.
Pages: 41 pages.
Size: 6 x 4.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original pale blue cloth binding, with blue lettering to the spine and a large mounted colour illustration by Margaret W. Tarrant on the front board. Binding firm and attractive, showing light age-related toning and minor rubbing, particularly at the extremities, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good. Pages remain bright and firmly bound, with rare light staining or foxing as shown. The illustrated “This Book Belongs to Me” leaf remains uncompleted. Small vintage G. F. Warfield & Co., Hartford, Connecticut bookseller’s label to the rear pastedown.
Illustrations: Complete with six full-page colour illustrations by Margaret W. Tarrant, together with numerous charming blue line illustrations, decorative borders and vignettes throughout. 

Estimate: USD 250–300.

The book: The Pond Fairies belongs to the delightful series of small-format fairy books created by Marion St. John Webb and Margaret W. Tarrant during the 1920s. Its short poems and stories transform the familiar world of the garden pond into a miniature enchanted landscape populated by tadpole fairies, pond-lily fairies, frogs, water creatures and tiny winged folk. Among its sections are “Among the Tadpoles,” “The Fairy Omnibus,” “The Tale of a Toad,” “The Fairy Without Any Wings,” “Raindrops,” and “Seeing Fairies.”

The appeal of the volume lies equally in Tarrant’s illustrations. Her soft watercolours, with children riding frogs, fairies emerging from water lilies and tiny creatures moving through reeds and ponds, capture the gentle fantasy for which she became celebrated. Copies retaining all six colour illustrations are particularly desirable, and the book is now comparatively scarce.

The author and illustrator: Marion St. John Webb (1888–1930) was an English writer of poetry, fantasy and children’s literature who collaborated extensively with Margaret Tarrant. Their series of fairy books became characteristic examples of British illustrated children’s publishing of the 1920s, combining Webb’s imaginative verses with Tarrant’s delicately conceived fairy world.

Margaret Winifred Tarrant (1888–1959) was one of the most recognizable British fairy illustrators of the early twentieth century. Particularly associated with fairies, children, flowers and woodland subjects, she worked extensively for the Medici Society and Modern Art Society. Her partnership with Webb produced a substantial group of fairy books, including The Forest Fairies, The House Fairies, The Insect Fairies, The Pond Fairies and others, which remain sought after by collectors of Golden Age and fairy illustration.