THE OLIVE FAIRY BOOK (First Edition 1907)

London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1907

Small 8vo, xv + 336pp. Hardcover binding, with gilt lettering to spine, and inlaid gilt illustrations to spine and front board. All edges gilt. With 7 full-colour plates and full-colour frontispiece, and 20 monochrome plates, collated and complete. Various other illustrations throughout text.

The Langs' Fairy Books are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and Leonora Blanche Alleyne, a married couple. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections of fairy tales also known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book. The Olive Fairy Book includes unusual stories from Turkey, India, Denmark, Armenia, the Sudan, and the pen of Anatole France. (wikipedia.com)

Condition: Good. Some shelfwear to top and tail of spine. Light wear to corners of boards. Light rubbing to boards and spine. Previous owner’s bookplate on front pastedown, and her signature to half title page. Spots of foxing and small stains to various pages, text and plates are overall clean and bright. Some splitting to gutters between endpapers, pastedowns and various pages, book still decently bound.