1930 Rare Book - East of the Sun and West of the Moon Illustrated by Kay Nielsen
An attractive early American edition of the celebrated Scandinavian fairy tales, richly illustrated with Kay Nielsen’s extraordinary fantasy imagery and retaining its striking original pictorial binding.
Author: [Anonymous traditional tales; after Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe].
Title: East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North.
Publisher: Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., circa 1930.
Edition: Early American illustrated edition, reproducing Kay Nielsen’s celebrated illustrations originally created for the 1914 edition.
Language: English.
Pages: 204 pages.
Size: 9 x 6.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original dark publisher’s cloth, with a large full-colour pictorial panel to the front board after an illustration by Victor Candell, bordered in turquoise, and turquoise lettering and pictorial decoration to the spine. Binding firm and attractive, with light rubbing and surface wear, including some rubbing to the pictorial panel, minor marks to the rear board, and light wear at the extremities, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, complete and firmly bound, with general age toning and occasional minor marks. The illustrated endpapers show expected browning and offsetting, with a faint early ownership inscription in the “This Is My Book” panel. Small Paul Elder & Co., San Francisco bookseller’s label present. No significant textual defects observed.
Illustrations: Profusely illustrated throughout with Kay Nielsen’s celebrated fairy-tale designs, including eight colour plates together with numerous black-and-white illustrations, decorative borders, initials, ornaments and vignettes. Additional decorative work and the striking cover design are by Victor Candell. The colour plates remain particularly attractive, retaining strong colour and detail.
Estimate: USD 200–225.
The book: East of the Sun and West of the Moon is one of the great illustrated fairy-tale books of the early twentieth century, gathering traditional Norwegian stories of enchanted princes, trolls, magical journeys and impossible quests. The title tale, with its mysterious White Bear and castle lying beyond the boundaries of the known world, remains among the most enduring stories in Scandinavian folklore.
This Garden City edition made Kay Nielsen’s celebrated illustrations available to a wider American readership while preserving much of the visual character that made the original edition famous. Nielsen’s elegant figures, vast landscapes, elaborate costumes and almost otherworldly sense of space transform these northern tales into some of the most recognizable images of the Golden Age of Illustration. The unusual pictorial binding by Victor Candell makes this edition particularly decorative even without the increasingly scarce dust jacket.
The illustrators: Kay Nielsen (1886–1957) was a Danish illustrator and one of the most distinctive masters of the Golden Age of Illustration. Influenced by Art Nouveau, Japanese prints and Scandinavian decorative traditions, he developed an instantly recognizable style of elongated figures, intricate pattern and dreamlike landscapes. His work for East of the Sun and West of the Moon is generally regarded as one of the high points of his career and remains particularly sought after by collectors of illustrated fairy tales.
Victor Candell contributed additional decorative material to this Garden City edition, including its boldly coloured pictorial cover and illustrated endpapers. His designs complement Nielsen’s fantasy imagery while giving this American edition a visual identity of its own.