Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales, Pictured by W. Heath Robinson, buy 1920's Yellow-Brown Cloth Hard Cover

buy This copy of "Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales, Pictured by W. Heath Robinson" is a 319 page hard cover edition, published by Hodder & Stoughton, Limited, London, in the 1920's. The cloth cover is sort of a brownish yellow, with black lettering on the spine and the front cover. The front cover also has an illustration of "The Chief Imperial Nightingale Bringer" holding the Nightingale. An inscription is written on the front free endpaper "Merry Christmas to Charles from Bernie (?) & Betty". There was probably a date written there too, but a section of the end paper measuring about 3" x 1" was sliced out.

There are 24 stories with 16 color illustrations that are attached only along one edge. There are also 81 black and white illustrations. Many of the black and white illustrations were carefully colored in with watercolors. Some may have been done with colored pencils dipped in water, to achieve the same effect.

The book has problems. The cover is worn along the edges, especially the bottom edge of the back cover. The cloth cover is torn at the spine, 7" down from the top at the back cover, and about 3/4" down from the top at the front cover. It is split at both endpapers, and there is foxing on the first few pages and the last few pages. The binding is loose, the last four pages are completely separated from the binding, although they are still connected to each other. There are no missing pages, and no missing illustrations. Page 167/168, "The Little Mermaid" is only attached at the top two inches, and it has a crease at the top outer corner. Some of the pages have faint pencil scribbles.

This is a beautiful book, and the illustrations are breathtaking. Even though some of the black and whites have been colored in, most of the coloring was very carefully done, and doesn't hurt the pictures too much. This book was very well loved and used a lot by whoever has owned it through the last hundred or so years, and the wear shows it.

I did a lot of research on this book, and couldn't find too much information. One web site said that it was published in 1923, but I'm not sure of the accuracy of that date.

If you have any questions, or would like additional photos, please don't hesitate to ask.