The Crimson Fairy Book. Lang, Andrew (Ed.).

First edition, first impression. This eighth instalment in the Fairy Books series contains 36 stories; they originate from Eastern Europe, Sicily, Scandinavia, and East Asia, and include "The Prince and the Dragon", "The Colony of Cats", and "The Magic Kettle". Henry Justice Ford's (1860-1941) artwork for the series "provided a benchmark in fantasy illustration" (Grolier). Though the Fairy Books are credited to Andrew Lang (1844-1912), he acknowledged in the preface to Lilac (1910) that they "have been almost wholly the work of Mrs [Leonora] Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages". Grolier Children's 100, 51. Octavo. Original crimson cloth, spine lettered and stamped in gilt with gnomish device, front cover blocked in gilt with angelic and knight-and-monster motifs, pink and blue illustrated endpapers, edges gilt. Colour frontispiece with tissue guard, 7 colour plates, 35 uncoloured engraved plates, further engravings in the text, all by H. J. Ford. Bookseller's ticket of Charles J. Sawyer, London, on front pastedown; contemporary gift inscription on half-title. Gilt and cloth notably bright, rubbing to extremities, faint foxing to prelims, white spotting to rear endpapers, text clean. A near-fine copy.