Down the Rabbit Hole to Oz: Children’s Lit Window Display at Fulham Road

Mar 23, 2016 | Uncategorized

Those who pass by our Fulham Road shop on a regular enough basis will already be aware that our window display  changes frequently. Just in case you won’t have the chance to see it for yourself, we thought we’d keep you up-to-date on the books, prints and curiosities making an appearance each time. Here, we have a selection of Children’s literature

The Wonderful City of Oz

The Wonderful City of Oz

BAUM, L. Frank; John R. Neill (founded on and continuing the famous Oz stories).
The Wonderful City of Oz.
Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co, 1940
Octavo. Original orange cloth, colour pictorial image pasted down to front board, titles and decoration to spine in black, illustrated endpapers. With the dust jacket. Illustrated throughout in black and white. A bright copy with an inscription on the presentation page, in the dust jacket with just a touch of wear to extremities, small chip to front top edge. An excellent copy.
First edition, first printing, first state. The first John Neill authored Oz title.

£1,200

BLYTON, Enid.
Five Go Adventuring Again. BOOK SOLD
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1943
Octavo. Original pale blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black, plain endpapers. With the dust jacket. Colour frontispiece and illustrations throughout by Eileen Soper. Neat pencilled ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Jacket a little soiled and creased, spine rolled, front cover partially sunned at head, covers a little dished, yet overall still a good copy.
First edition, first impression, of the second Famous Five adventure, following Five on a Treasure Island (1942).

£1,250

CARLE, Eric.
“Slowly, Slowly, Slowly” Said the Sloth. – BOOK SOLD
New York: Philomel books, 2002
Quarto. Original printed laminate boards. With the dust jacket.
First edition, first printing. A beautifully illustrated picture book on the cycles of the moon with pages extending upwards and outwards.

£85

CARROLL, Lewis. The Nursery Alice

CARROLL, Lewis.
The Nursery Alice.With text adapted to nursery readers. BOOK SOLD
London: Macmillan and Co., 1890
Small quarto. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in dark green morocco, titles to spine gilt, pictorial onlay of the mad-hatter’s tea party with oval surround gilt, inner dentelles gilt, floral endpapers, gilt edges. Contains 20 coloured enlargements from Tenniel’s illustrations to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. The occasional minor blemish, an excellent copy in a fine binding.
First published edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, “Maggie Bowman from the Author. Mar. 31 1890”. Dodgson took charge of Maggie Bowman during her stay in Oxford to act in Bootle’s Baby (9 to 13 June 1889), and commemorated this event in his poem “Maggie’s Visit to Oxford”. Her older sister, Isa Bowman, who at that time was one of Dodgson’s “chiefest” child friends, played the part of Alice in the revival of Savile Clarke’s dream play which opened at the Globe Theatre on 26 December 1888. In fact, this production introduced all five of the Bowman children to the stage, and the girls later became professional actresses. The first printing of this abridged version of Alice was discarded by Dodgson in much the same way as its 1865 predecessor. Five hundred copies were sent for issue in the USA but even these were apparently destroyed. This 1890 printing exists in at least three states, the present example being the earliest, with “Price Four Shillings” on the title page.

£6,750

COLLODI, Carlo.
The Story of a Puppet or the Adventures of Pinocchio.Translated from the Italian by M. A. Murray. Illustrated by C. Mazzanti.
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1892
Small octavo. Original blue patterned cloth, titles to spine and upper panel in blue, patterned edges and endpapers. Spine faded and rolled, upper hinge cracking.
First Edition in English. “One of the best known fantasies, and the most popular children’s book to come out of Italy… The story was written for a Rome children’s magazine, the Giornale dei bambini, where the first instalment appeared on 7 July 1881. It was published as a book in 1883 under the title Le Avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un burattino (History of a Puppet), and quickly became a best-seller… Lorenzini’s publisher is said to have made a fortune out of it, but Lorenzini himself died too early to witness its international success… Almost nothing else in children’s literature equals Pinocchio for wildness of invention” (Carpenter & Prichard, Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature).

£8,500

DAHL, Roald.
Fantastic Mr Fox. – BOOK SOLD
Illustrated by Donald Chaffin.
London: George Allen & Unwin Limited, 1970
Octavo. Original laminated pictorial boards, titles to front cover and spine in red and black. Black and white illustrations by Donald Chaffin throughout. Occasional spotting to pages, title to spine lightly sunned, light soiling to boards, spine gently rolled. A very good copy.
First UK edition, first impression, with the US edition published the same year.

£875

DAHL, Roald.
Matilda. – Signed – BOOK SOLD
Illustrations by Quentin Blake.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1988
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “Caroline Love Roald Dahl”. Matilda won the Children’s Book Award in the year of its publication. It formed the basis for both the 1996 film directed by Danny DeVito and the successful stage musical which premiered at the RSC’s Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in November 2010.

£3,500

DICAMILLO, Kate.
The Tale of Despereaux. – BOOK SOLD
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2003
Octavo. Printed boards, patterned endpapers, with the dust jacket. An excellent copy.
First edition, first printing. Signed by the author bookplate laid in. Winner of the 2004 Newbery Award and basis for the 2008 film starring Emma Watson.

£100

DISNEY, Walt. A Mickey Mouse Alphabet Book.

DISNEY, Walt.
A Mickey Mouse Alphabet Book. – BOOK SOLD
Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing, 1936
Octavo. Original illustrated boards. Disney Studio illustrations. Signature to front endpaper, wear to spine, rubbing to corners and ends of spine, minor bubbling to rear board. A very good copy.
First edition, first printing. A fun and quirky Disney item.

£250

FALCONER, Ian.
Olivia. – BOOK SOLD
New York: Atheneum, 2000
Quarto. Pictorial laminated boards, pictorial endpapers with the dust jacket. Colour illustrations throughout by the author. An excellent copy.
First edition, first printing. A Caldecott Honor title for 2000. First title in the series. Basis for the animated cartoon.

£75

(FEIFFER, Jules.) JUSTER, Norton.
The Phantom Tollbooth.
New York: Epstein and Carroll. 1961
Octavo. Blue cloth with titles to spine white, illustration to front board in white, map endpapers, in dust jacket. A bright and excellent copy in price clipped dust jacket with shallow chipping to spine ends and lower edges, chip to mid front spine edge that effects part of the “L” to title on spine, light chipping and splitting along flap folds with tape at verso. A very presentable copy.
First edition, first printing with publisher Epstein and Carroll printed on dust jacket and stated on title page (later editions have Random House as publisher). Signed by illustrator Jules Feiffer on title page. True first printings of this title are very uncommon and signed copies even more so. A charming story of a child’s wonderful imagination, delightfully written with witty puns that would have surly even made Lewis Carroll crack a smile.

£2,000

GAIMAN, Neil
Stardust. – BOOK SOLD
New York: Spike, 1999
Octavo. Original black and blue paper boards, titles to spine and front board silver. with the dust jacket. An excellent copy.
First edition, first impression. Basis for the 2007 film which starred Ian McKellen, Sienna Miller,and Robert De Niro.

£75

(JAMES, M. R.) McBRYDE, James.
The Story of a Troll-Hunt. BOOK SOLD
Cambridge: Printed at the University Press, 1904
Quarto. Original vellum backed grey boards, lettered in black on front cover. Illustrated throughout by James McBryde. Spotting to vellum spine, light rubbing to corners, light off setting to endpapers. A very good copy.
First edition, first impression, of a putative edition of 100 copies and decidedly uncommon: Copac lists only three locations in British and Irish institutional libraries (BL, V&A, Cambridge), OCLC adds just five more. “James McBryde was a student and friend of M. R. James (MRJ). He came up to King’s in 1893 to read Natural Sciences. Although McBryde was 10 years younger than MRJ the pair became firm friends. McBryde joined MRJ’s bookish circle and was one of the select few who heard MRJ’s ghost stories by the light of a candle in a draughty set of rooms at King’s. The friendship between the two men outlived McBryde’s Cambridge career and between 1899 and 1901 they travelled each year to Denmark and Sweden. These adventures would later inspire two of MRJ’s ghost stories (’No. 13’ and ‘Count Magnus’) and McBryde’s children’s book The Story of the Troll-Hunt. The story told of three Cambridge men who travelled to Jutland to hunt monsters to bring back to the Fitzwilliam Museum – MRJ was the Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum from 1893 to 1908. McBryde and his wife Gwendolyn settled in London in 1904 when McBryde enrolled at the Slade School of Art. Shortly after beginning his art studies, MRJ approached him with the idea of illustrating his ghost stories. McBryde, already familiar with the stories, welcomed the opportunity… Sadly… McBryde died a month later of complications following an appendix operation… It has been suggested the McBryde was the love of MRJ’s life. MRJ is known to have picked flowers from the Fellows Garden at King’s and travelled up with them on the train to McBryde’s funeral in Lancashire where he tossed them into his friend’s grave. After McBryde’s death, MRJ arranged for the publication of The Story of a Troll-Hunt with Cambridge University Press and wrote an introduction for the volume. One of its illustrations is a cartoon of MRJ, James McBryde and William Johnson Stone sitting on a bench on the Backs plotting their adventure. MRJ was named legal guardian of McBryde’s daughter Jane who was born six months after her father’s death. MRJ, the consummate Victorian bachelor, maintained a lifelong friendship with McBryde’s widow Gwendolyn and his daughter Jane. The two women became a surrogate family for him” (King’s College, Cambridge online).

£975

Moominpappa at Sea, First Edition

JANSSON, Tove.
Moominpappa at Sea.
London: Ernest Benn, 1966
Octavo. blue cloth boards, titles to spine black. With the dust jacket. black and white illustrations throughout by the author. Occasional spotting to pages, toning and spotting to the dust jacket, closed tears along front top edge. A very good copy.
First edition, first english language edition.

£175

JOHNS, W. E.
Gimlet’s Oriental Quest.
Leicester: The Brockhampton Press, Ltd, 1948
Octavo. Original green cloth, spine and front board lettered in black. Frontispiece and 8 plates. Bookseller’s ticket to front pastedown. Contents toned, an excellent copy in the slightly creased jacket that has some nicks to extremities.
First edition, first impression. The fifth book in the author’s Gimlet series.

£175

KLASSEN, Jon.
This Is Not My Hat – BOOK SOLD
Masscusetts: Candlewick Press, 2012
Oblong quarto. Original black boards, titles to spine and front cover in blue and white, illustration to front board, patterned endpapers. With the dust jacket. A fine copy.
First edition, first printing of the best-selling book.

£100

 

LOFTING, Hugh.
Doctor Dolittle in the Moon. BOOK SOLD
London: Jonathan Cape, 1929
Octavo. Original grey cloth, titles to spine and front cover purple, illustrated endpapers. With the dust jacket. Colour frontispiece and illustrations to text by author. Gift inscription to half-title. Spine faded, some marks to cloth, a few spots to edges of text block. A very good copy in the creased and lightly foxed jacket, with some short closed tears to extremities.
First UK edition, first impression. It was first published in the US the preceding year.

£225

LOFTING, Hugh.
Doctor Dolittle’s Caravan. – BOOK SOLD
London: Jonathan Cape, 1927
Octavo. Original grey cloth, titles to spine and front board purple, illustrated endpapers. With the dust jacket. Colour frontispiece and illustrations to text by author. Spine faded and spotted, some foxing to edges of text block, pp. 171-4 with creased tips; a very good copy in the foxed and unclipped jacket, with some minor nicks to extremities.
First UK edition, first impression. it was first published in the US in 1924.

£250

Doctor Dolittle's Zoo

LOFTING, Hugh.
Doctor Dolittle’s Zoo. – BOOK SOLD
London: Jonathan Cape, 1926
Octavo. Original grey cloth, titles to spine and front cover blue, illustrated endpapers. With the dust jacket. Colour frontispiece and illustrations to text by author. Spine rolled and faded, foxing to edges of text block and occasional spotting to contents. A very good copy in the jacket with some shallow chips to extremities.
First UK edition, first impression. It was first published in the US the preceding year.

£325

5

LUCAS, George.
Star Wars; Return of the Jedi a Pop-Up. – BOOK SOLD
New York: Random House 1983
Octavo. Original pictorial boards. Light rubbing to corners, creasing to spine. A very good copy.
First edition, first printing. A pop-up based on the film.

£75

MILNE, A. A.
The House at Pooh Corner – BOOK SOLD
With Decorations by Ernest H. Shepard.
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1928
Octavo. Original pink cloth, titles to spine and pictorial design to front board gilt, top edge gilt, illustrated endpapers. With the pictorial dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by E. H. Shepard. A fine copy in the exceptionally bright jacket.
First edition, first impression, of the fourth Winnie-the-Pooh book, in which Tigger makes his first appearance.

£450

MILNE, A. A.
When We Were Very Young. BOOK SOLD
London: Methuen & Co, 1924
Octavo. Original blue cloth, rule and stamped illustrations to front and back boards gilt, titles to spine gilt, top edge gilt. With a later printing dust jacket. Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. Corners and ends of spine lightly bumped, toning to endpapers, in the later printing dust jacket with mild toning to spine, a touch of soiling to panels, closed tears and tiny nicks to top end of spine. A very good copy.
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the illustrator on the front free endpaper, “To Aunt Fanny, with love from Ernest, Xmas 1924”. Shepard was very close to his aunts; his mother had died when he was ten, after which his aunts helped to raise him, taking him and his siblings on many trips. Shepard described Fanny as “the energetic one” and “chief organiser” of the family in his autobiography Drawn From Memory (1957), recalling fondly a story of her visit to the Jubilee illuminations, “in spite of Aunt Alicia’s protests and warnings”. This copy has been in the family by descent since the presentation.

£7,500

NORTON, Mary.
The Borrowers. – BOOK SOLD
Illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953
Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine and pictorial design to upper board in blue. With the dust jacket. Spine just a little toned. An excellent copy in the very lightly rubbed jacket with toned spine panel.
First US edition, first printing. Originally published in the UK the previous year. A lovely copy.

£250

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, Beatrix Potter

POTTER, Beatrix.
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. BOOK SOLD
London: Frederick Warne and Co. 1904
First edition, first impression, with “muffatees” (“muffetees” in the second impression onward) and “we” in Roman type (italics in the second impression onward) on page 15. It was issued in grey or tan paper boards, with no priority between them. Sextodecimo. Original grey paper-covered boards, titles to spine and front cover in dark green, pictorial label to front board, illustrated endpapers.

£1,500

The Moon Jumpers. UDRY, Janice May.

(SENDAK, Maurice.) UDRY, Janice May.
The Moon Jumpers. – BOOK SOLD
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959
Quarto. Original pictorial boards, red cloth back strip, green endpapers. With the dust jacket. Illustrations throughout by Maurice Sendak. Occasional light spotting, in the dust jacket with short closed tears along top edges, shallow chipping to ends of spine. A very good copy.
First edition, first printing. A 1960 Caldecott Honor book, recognising the storie’s superb Sendak illustrations.

£200

Superman.From the 30’s to the 70’s. With an introduction by E. Nelson Bridwell.

(SIEGEL, Jerome and Joe Schuster)
Superman.From the 30’s to the 70’s. With an introduction by E. Nelson Bridwell. – BOOK SOLD
New York: Crown Publishing, 1971
Quarto. Original red cloth boards, titles to spine in blue, blue endpapers. With the dust jacket. Colour and black and white illustrations throughout. Dust jacket lightly toned and with a touch of wear to the extremities. An excellent copy.
First edition, first printing. A collection of all of “Superman’s memorable firsts.”

£75

Mary Poppins. With illustrations by Mary Shepard.

TRAVERS, P. L.
Mary Poppins. – BOOK SOLD
With illustrations by Mary Shepard.
London: Collins, 1967
Octavo. Original green boards, titles to spine black. With the dust jacket. Black and white illustrations by Mary Shepard throughout. Dust jacket with fading to spine, wear and mild rubbing along rear flap fold and spine, toning to panels. A very good copy.
Later printing, inscribed by the author on the endpaper, “ Dr. Wonnacott, one of my heros! P. L. Travers. February 1966.” Additionally laid in is a publisher’s slip stating, from the author with wishes of a speedy recovery.

£1,375

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