Children's and Illustrated

The jacket is torn, but virtually complete with only marginal loss and unclipped showing the price 7/6. Where the jacket has split the boards have been exposed and they have faded in those areas a little, especially to the spine. Name on front free endpaper, but no other markings. The jacket is creased to one patch on the front panel. All first edition points as per Wayne Hammond's bibliography.

One of the rarest firsts of all British 20th century children's books.

An excellent, crisp copy of this book, the first edition illustrated by Ardizzone in an unclipped wrapper. No inscriptions.

A very nice, crisp, clean copy of this classic, the first edition that Ardizzone illustrated. No inscriptions.

The first edition of Eliot's classic collection of poems, which formed the basis of Lloyd Webber's 'Cats'. A VG+ copy in unclipped wrapper with correct price 3s 6d.The book and wrapper in Vg condition. Wrapper with only one or two small areas of grubbiness, not disfiguring. No inscriptions.

The Home of Santa Claus, by George A. Best, 1900. Illustrated with photographs by Arthur Ullyett. The b/w photos are mainly of dolls who inhabit the imaginary land to which Leslie, the little boy-hero of the story goes in search of Santa Claus and ends up in Santa Clauberg, which is peopled by dolls. After a series of adventures he is forced to arbritrate in a dispute between the Mannikins of Sweetchester and the Dolls of the Town of Toys. All of this illustrated by the quirky photographs of Ullyett. Bizarre and enchanting, and rare. George A. Best wrote for Punch and there is something of that whimsical English Surrealism about the whole story. The book is in VG condition, brown cloth boards with illustration of Santa on a rooftop on the front cover. Some small marks and edgewear, Inside a gift inscription to front endpaper, occasional grubby mark, but really very good for age.
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Mickey Mouse in Giantland, published by Collins 1934. This is the UK edition of the book. A VG copy indeed, hard to better. Colour frontispiece is present, and 44 full page illustrations all as published and not coloured in by childish hands! A Disney retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. Binding very good and solid, little bit of edgewear to boards, but nothing at all serious. Pages are age toned and slightly darkened, but again all good. As good a copy as one could hope for.

A rare ABC from the pen of Edmund Blampied writing and illustrating under the pen name 'Blam'. Published by Thomas Nelson 1921. Apparently not in the British Library. Only one copy held in Oxford. A good copy, crease to bottom corner of front cover and waterstain throughout to bottom edge of pages. Linen pages. Offbeat images throughout from A was an Archer who shot at a frog, through I was an Italian who had a white mouse, to S was a Sailor who spent all he got to V was a veteran who sold pretty toys. For extra pictures please click on 'more'.
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perhaps the best of all the various illustrated editions of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. This is Edmund Blampied's evocative edition published in 1939. One of the last, perhaps the last of the great tradition of lavish gift books - a genre which had seen marvelous work from Rackham, Pogany, Dulac and others. This is a VG good copy in the original dustjacket now in a protecteed cover. The cream coloured cloth boards are nice and clean, no binding issues, and the wrapper also VG. Some foxing spots to wrapper, little bit of loss of paper on spine, impinging on J.M. of Barrie's name. Some other little chips and closed tears but really a good example. Wrapper is unclipped, price 10/6 - a bargain! 12 colour illustrations tipped in complete with tissue guards. More b/w illustrations within text. A handsome copy, rare to find in this condition complete with dustjacket. Click on 'more' for extra images.
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