1927 First Edition - Autumn Songs with Music from Flower Fairies of the Autumn
An especially charming Flower Fairies volume, bringing Cicely Mary Barker’s autumn fairies together with Olive Linnell’s musical settings, and particularly desirable in its original dust jacket.
Author: Cicely Mary Barker. Music by Olive Linnell.
Title: Autumn Songs with Music from “Flower Fairies of the Autumn.”
Publisher: London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Limited, [1927]. First Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 10" x 7.5".
Pages: Unpaginated.
Binding: Very good original hardcover binding, with pale paper-covered boards and blue cloth spine. The binding remains firm, clean and well preserved, with only light age-related wear, as shown.
Dust jacket: Good and scarce original pictorial dust jacket, retaining the charming mounted illustration of the Blackberry Fairy to the front. The jacket shows expected age toning, edge wear, creasing, small tears and some chipping and loss, particularly around the extremities, as shown. An unusually pleasing survival for this fragile jacket. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content. Pages are clean and well preserved, with occasional light foxing and minor age toning. Gift note of a previous owner on the first endpaper as shown. The tipped-in plates remain bright and attractive.
Illustrations: Complete with 12 beautiful tipped-in color plates by Cicely Mary Barker, including the Black Bryony Fairy, Beechnut Fairy, Burdock Fairy, Crab-Apple Fairy and Blackberry Fairy. Each fairy is accompanied by Barker’s verse, with musical settings by Olive Linnell.
Estimate: USD $300–500.
The book: Autumn Songs with Music is one of the delightful musical companions to Cicely Mary Barker’s celebrated Flower Fairies books. The verses and pictures are taken from Flower Fairies of the Autumn, with the poems here transformed into songs through musical settings by Olive Linnell.
Published by Blackie & Son in 1927, this First Edition presents twelve of Barker’s autumn fairies in a particularly attractive large-format setting. Each song is accompanied by the corresponding fairy poem and a beautiful tipped-in color plate, allowing Barker’s delicate botanical observation and imaginative fairy figures to take centre stage.
Among the fairies represented are familiar autumn plants, fruits and trees such as the Black Bryony, Beechnut, Burdock, Crab-Apple and Blackberry. Barker’s characteristic combination of accurately observed plant life and carefully modelled childlike figures gives the illustrations their enduring charm. The rich russets, greens, yellows and berry tones are especially suited to the autumn theme.
The author and illustrator: Cicely Mary Barker (1895–1973) was an English artist and writer best remembered for her enchanting Flower Fairies. Her first volume, Flower Fairies of the Spring, appeared in 1923 and established the distinctive formula that would make her work famous: exquisitely observed botanical specimens combined with delicate fairy figures based largely on real children whom Barker knew and sketched.
Her paintings combine fantasy with remarkable naturalistic detail. Flowers, berries, leaves and trees are rendered with botanical sensitivity, while the fairies themselves possess an innocence and individuality that distinguish Barker’s work from much contemporary fairy illustration.
The Flower Fairies became one of the most enduring achievements of twentieth-century children’s illustration, and Barker continued to develop their world through seasonal books, alphabets, songs and other related volumes.
The composer: Olive Linnell provided the musical settings for Barker’s verses, arranging the poems as songs for voice with piano accompaniment. Her music gives the familiar Flower Fairies poems another dimension, preserving the gentle, playful character of Barker’s words while making this volume a particularly unusual combination of illustrated children’s book and period sheet music.