1950 Rare Cicely Mary Barker Book - FAIRIES OF THE FLOWERS AND TREES. First Edition.
(description)
Author: Poems and Pictures by Cicely Mary Barker.
Title: FAIRIES OF THE FLOWERS AND TREES.
Publisher: London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Limited. - First Edition, circa 1950.
Size: 7.5 "X 6 ".
Pages: 92 pages + 72 plates.
Dustjacket: Very good dust jacket (close tears mainly on the top and lower part of the spine - as shown,coin-sized chip on the upper left corner of front panel - as shown ) in a protective removable mylar cover. Rare dust jacket in any condition!
Binding: Attractive and very good original full cloth binding (hinges fine - as shown).
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean - as shown).
Illustrations: Profusely illustrated with 72 exquisite color plates by Cicely Mary Barker.
Estimate: (USD 350 - USD 400)
The book: Rare and very nice First edition with the dust jacket of this exquisite omnibus volume by Cicely Mary Barker. The scarcest of the combined Flower Fairies volumes. `Flower Fairies of the Garden', `Flower Fairies of the Wayside' and `Flower Fairies of the Trees'. One of the great fairy texts, personifying every variety of flowers, grass, plant with a fairy child. A rare find with the original dust jacket!
The author: Cicely Mary Barker (June 28, 1895 - February 16, 1973) was the illustrator who created the famous Flower Fairies, in the shape of ethereal smiling children with butterfly wings. As a child, she was greatly influenced by the works of the illustrator Kate Greenaway, whom she assiduously copied in her formative years. Her principal influence, however, which she duly credited, was the artwork of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Cicely was also influenced by the huge popular interest in fairies which developed from the Victorian enthusiasm for fairy stories and was epitomized by the immense popularity of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in the early part of the 20th century. Published in 1923, Flower Fairies of the Spring was well received by a post-industrial, war-weary public who were charmed by her vision of hope and innocence, which seemed to evoke a less aggressively modern world.