IN POWDER AND CRINOLINE

[London]: Hodder & Stoughton, [1913]. 318 x 229 mm. (12 1/2 x 9"). xii, 163, [1] pp.
FINE GREEN MOROCCO BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with single gilt fillet border, upper cover with gilt titling; raised bands, gilt-ruled compartments, turn-ins with single gilt fillet, marbled endleaves, top edge gilt. WITH 26 COLOR PLATES BY KAY NIELSEN tipped onto gray stock with decorative frames, each with captioned and decorated tissue guards. ◆Two leaves with short closed tear to fore margin, slight browning to edges of leaves, additional trivial defects, but QUITE A FINE COPY, clean internally and in an unworn binding.

This is an attractively bound copy of Quiller-Couch's third collection of fairy tales, with consistently winning illustrations by Nielsen. It appears to be a variant of the Edition De Luxe, with two more plates than the trade edition, but it is not signed by Nielsen, as the 500 copies of that edition were supposed to be. The cheeky, somewhat campy illustrations here strongly reflect the influence of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist much admired by Nielsen. An English writer and critic of Cornish descent who published under the pseudonym "Q," Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944) is perhaps best remembered as the compiler of the monumental "Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900." The fairy tales in the present volume are "Minon-Minette," "Felicia or the Pot of Pinks," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," "Rosanie or the Inconstant Prince," "The Man Who Never Laughed," "John and the Ghosts," and "The Czarina's Violet.".