1909 The Crimson Fairy Book Edited by Andrew Lang / Longmans Green & Co. London / Beautiful Vintage Book of Fairy Tales / Richly Illustrated

A beautiful collection of fairy tales being a vintage book in the highly sought-after coloured fairy books series by Andrew Lang. These are becoming increasingly hard to get hold of. The Crimson Fairy Book was originally published in 1903, this copy is from 1909 by Longmans, Green and Co., London. With the striking illustration of the knight slaying the dragon, on the front. Richly illustrated with eight colour and many more black and white plates, plus numerous illustrations in the text by HJ Ford. In good condition.

Lang had grown up with a love of myths and fables and towards the end of the 1880s he began to collect and publish some of his favourite tales. The Blue Fairy Book, was the result, published in 1889 it met with great critical acclaim. The Red Fairy book appeared in Christmas of the following year. Lang went on to produce a series of twelve collections of fairy tales, published between 1889 and 1910. Each volume is distinguished by its own colour. In all, 437 tales from a broad range of cultures and countries are presented. The Crimson Fairy Book includes stories from all over the world including Hungary, Russia, Finland, Iceland, Tunisia and the Baltic.

Inside the pages are clean and tightly bound with just the occasional faint dark handling mark, and brown blemish. Cracks open at the hinge near the beginning, but in no way effecting the binding of the text block which is good and strong. All the beautiful illustrated plates are present as called for. The frontispiece illustration still has the original tissue guard. With a small inked name at the top of the blank front free endpaper, dated 1912, but no other writing or markings of previous ownership.

The crimson cloth covered boards have the ornate gilt decoration to the front and spine. The front board and decoration are in top order, with the gilt being shiny bright. The rear board has a couple of faint light marks. The red cloth on the spine has faded a good deal in comparison with the boards, but the gilt titles and decoration can still be discerned.

Your antique copy of The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang will be wrapped with care in tissue and ribbon* and sent well packaged. I am always happy to include a gift card with a message. 

FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING

H 19 cm x W 14 cm, 371 pages, 0.65 kg. I dispatch worldwide daily from the UK. (There are just a very few countries which I am unable to ship to).

* If you would prefer for your book not to be decoratively wrapped but sent simply in the full protective packaging, please add a note to the order.

You can follow my news and updates on Instagram @bumperboxofdelights