1926 First Edition illustrated by Frederick Richardson - Andersen’s Fairy Tales

An attractive 1926 Andersen collection, richly illustrated by Frederick Richardson and preserved in its bright orange pictorial binding.

Author: Hans Christian Andersen. 
Title: Andersen’s Fairy Tales. 
Publisher: The John C. Winston Company, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, 1926. First Edition illustrated by Frederick Richardson.
Language: English.
Size: 8.5" x 6".
Pages: viii, 276 pages + publisher’s advertisement.
Binding: Very good publisher’s orange cloth binding with mounted colour pictorial plate to the front board, lettered spine, and pictorial endpapers printed in red. Light rubbing and minor age wear, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content, clean and well preserved overall, with light age-toning.
Illustrations: Complete with pictorial endpapers and 14 full-page illustrations by Frederick Richardson, including 4 in colour.

Estimate: USD $175–$250.

The book: A charming 1926 first edition of this Frederick Richardson illustrated collection of Andersen’s fairy tales, introduced by Laura Frazee and published by The John C. Winston Company. The selection includes many of Andersen’s best-loved stories, among them The Snow Queen, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Wild Swans, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Nightingale, Thumbelisa, and The Marsh King’s Daughter.

Richardson’s illustrations give the volume a bright early twentieth-century fairy-book atmosphere, with delicate line work, theatrical compositions, and four vivid colour plates. The mounted cover illustration, showing a sleigh scene against a snowy blue background, makes this a particularly appealing decorative copy.

The author: Hans Christian Andersen remains one of the central figures of literary fairy tale tradition. His stories combine wonder, melancholy, humour, and moral imagination, and have continued to shape children’s literature and illustrated book publishing for generations.

The illustrator: Frederick Richardson was an American illustrator especially associated with children’s books and fairy-tale imagery. His work here brings Andersen’s world into the visual language of the 1920s, balancing graceful line drawings with luminous colour plates.