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Published by London: Macmillan and Co., 1874, 1874
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
[Children's Classic] FINELY BOUND, a later edition. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.[8] 388 [2]. With four illustrated plates including a frontispiece. Contemporary tan full calf by BICKERS & SON, with raised bands, gilt titles to contrasting red and green labels, and further gilt tooling to spine. All edges and endpapers marbled. Illustrated bookplate to flyleaf. A little toning and spotting to first and final leaves. Lower half of upper hinge and joint split, with an archival tape repair to hinge. Moderate wear to spine and extremities. Very good. The classic children's tale, first published in 1863.
Published by T. O. H. P. Burnham, 1864
Seller: Book House in Dinkytown, IOBA, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
Association Member: IOBA
Book First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Presumed First American Printing. T.O.H.P. Burnham, 1864; no later printings indicated, "L'Envoi" on page facing Chapter One; [vi], [2], 8-310pp., chapter initial illustrations and two illustrated plates with tissue guards. Original brown textured and decorated cloth, rebacked in red buckram with original backstrip glued over and end pages replaced. Slight forward lean to spine, binding is otherwise sturdy and fully intact; edges of boards are worn, cloth split over corners; front board rubbed, gilt design dulled but clearly visible, gilt on backstrip dulled and only faintly legible; very light wear to gilt top edge; interior and text/illustrations are clean and crisp. Ships from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Published by London: Macmillan., 1874
Seller: Wittenborn Art Books, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. 12mo. 388 pp. Very Good, Blue Decorative Gilt Cloth with stains, some sun-fading, edge wear, & rubbing; spine somewhat slanted; minor shelf wear; front end papers repaired with tape; some stains on edges of text block. Provenance: John Ruyle, his bookplate inside cover; previous owners' signatures on half-title. Illustrated.
Published by London & Cambridge: Macmillan & Co., 1863, 1863
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.
First Edition
"Just Another Destitute Little Chimney-Sweep" or "The Oddest Fairy Tale That There Has Ever Been. A Near Fine Copy Of The First Edition of The Water-Babies KINGSLEY, Charles. The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. With two illustrations by J. Noel Paton, R.S.A. London & Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1863. First edition, second state. Small square octavo (8 x 6 1/8 inches; 203 x 155 mm.). [viii], [3], 4-350, [1 advertisements], 1 blank. Without the â L'Envoi' leaf which was canceled early on by Kingsley. Inserted frontispiece and full-page illustration opposite p. 145. With eight large engraved initial chapter letters. Original dark green fine-grain cloth, front cover with gilt triple-rule border enclosing a pictorial gilt center device depicting Tom, a Fish and a Sea-Horse. Spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Dark brown coated endpapers, top edge gilt. With the binders ticket of Burn of Kirby St., on the rear pastedown. Unidentified rectangular bookplate on front paste-down. A couple of small and very light spots on front cover, inner hinges with partial expert and almost invisible repairs. Otherwise a superlative copy, the gilt bright and fresh, of this scarce children's classic. Contemporary neat ink inscription on verso of front end-paper dated "Xmas 1863." Housed in a fleece-lined, quarter green morocco over green cloth clamshell case. "Charles Kingsley was a rural vicar in Victorian England, and the "land-baby" of the sub-title was his youngest son, five-year-old Grenville Arthur. In writing this fairy tale about the underwater adventures of Tom, a chimney-sweep's climbing-boy, Kingsley uttered many a sermon. But along with his zeal for Anglican Christianity he also brought into play his enthusiasm for nature and his strong sense of indignation at the Victorian practice of using small children as laborers. The difference between the first and second states is solely the removal of the L'Envoi leaf. The first state "contains a leaf bearing a poem, L'Envoi. Kingsley had second thoughts about this while the book was being printed, and he had the leaf removed, but not before a few hundred copies of the book had already gone forth." (Gottlieb, Early Children's Books and Their Illustration, 113). Grolier 100, 34.