FAIRY TALES AND LEGENDS OF HANS ANDERSEN. Illustrated by Rex Whistler.
London: Cobden-Sandersen Ltd, 1935. [8], 470 pages. Illustrated throughout in line by Whistler. This copy is one of the limited edition of 250 copies, signed by Whistler on the half-title, but instead of being in the usual white decorative cloth, gilt, is bound in full, decorative pink morocco, all edges gilt; the inner boards decorated with butterfly motifs on the morocco dentelles; the central panels being of scarlet silk with central gilt motifs; the free endpapers also being silk; the book housed in a solander cloth box with decorative, titled spine. This binding would appear to be totally unrecorded – certainly Stephen Calloway who curated the Whistler Exhibition at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, The Triumph of Fancy, 2006, has not seen a copy before - but it is clearly contemporary, presumably commissioned for presentation, and bound by the publisher's binders, Leighton-Straker. Some offsetting from the binding to the inner lining of the solander box; slight wear to the box extremities; else absolutely fine and very possibly unique.