Triplets. Comprising The Baby's Opera, The Baby's Bouquet, and the Baby's Own Aesop
London and New York: George Routledge & Sons, 1899. Large quarto, measuring 11.5 x 12 inches: [9], 10-192. Original light brown cloth lettered in gilt, vellum spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Printed in color with color illustrations throughout text; printed musical arrangements throughout The Baby’s Opera and The Baby’s Bouquet. Bookplate of Eugene Lent to front pastedown. Foxing to endpapers and edges, vellum cracking at spine head, light general shelfwear.
Deluxe reissue of three of Walter Crane’s most popular titles for children, number 7 of 250 copies for the American market, out of a total run of 750. One of the leading book illustrators of the Victorian era, Crane fell under the spell of the Pre-Raphaelites while apprenticed to wood engraver W.J. Linton, and later worked closely with William Morris at the Kelmscott Press. His devotion to an ideal unity of design is evident in the sharp outlines and vibrant flat tints of the illustrated nursery rhymes in The Baby’s Opera (1877) and The Baby’s Bouquet (1878), and in the hand-lettered fables of The Baby’s Own Aesop (1887), a nod to the age of the illuminated manuscript. From the library of San Francisco book collector Eugene Lent (1863-1937). A landmark of Arts and Crafts book illustration, in very good condition.
Price: $500.00