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A GALLERY OF CHILDREN.
(London: Stanley Paul & Co., [1925]). 330 x 260 mm. (13 x 10 1/4"). 4 p.l., 5-105, [1] pp., including the initial blank. FIRST EDITION. No. 367 OF 500 LARGE PAPER COPIES SIGNED BY MILNE.
Original white buckram, gilt vignette and titling on front cover and spine, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Color illustrated title page and 12 color plates by "Saida" (Henriette Willebeek LeMair), all printed on coated stock. Front pastedown with bookplate of M. Cababé. A Large Paper Copy. Half a dozen small, very faint spots to spine, one corner with minor snag, one leaf with two-inch closed marginal tear, other isolated trivial imperfections internally, but an extremely attractive copy, the text (on thick paper) fresh and bright, the color plates vivid, and the white binding remarkably clean.
This is the very attractively produced deluxe edition of Milne's story collection, with charming illustrations by a Dutch illustrator whose talent for depicting children was compared to that of Kate Greenaway. Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) was the author of popular plays, three novels, and numerous essays, but he is remembered almost exclusively as the creator of some of the best-loved characters in all of children's literature: Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, and Piglet. As Day observes, "both the verse and the stories . . . appeal immediately to children, and at the same time have fascinated the maturest of adult readers by their sensitive explorations of the world through the eyes of childhood." The present item is an elegantly simple group of stories recounting the adventures and revealing the inner thoughts of young children, accompanied by illustrations with broad appeal. Born in Rotterdam, our illustrator, Henriette Willebeek LeMair (1889-1966), grew up in an artistic household and showed an early talent for drawing. When she was 15, her patents took her to visit one of her heroes, French illustrator Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, who became her mentor. At his suggestion, she attended the Rotterdam Academy of Art. She published her first illustrations in 1904, and was soon illustrating books, postcards, and even china. She ran a small nursery school in her twenties, and often used her young charges as models. Her understanding of and tenderness toward children shines through her delicately colored watercolors. A contemporary critic for the fine and applied art magazine "The Studio" said, "Since the days of Kate Greenaway I know of no one who has caught so well the spirit of childhood as Miss Willebeek Le Mair." Though it has obvious appeal for children, our Large Paper Copy must have been read to its young audience by a responsible adult, as it is free from the usual wear and soiling one expects of a children's book, especially one bound in white cloth. (ST20790)
Price: $950.00