This beautiful and scarce first edition of The Brown Fairy Book by Andrew Lang was published by Longmans, Green and Co in 1904. So the book is from the Edwardian era.
***Please note that some of the illustrations have been coloured in and the book has been priced to reflect this***
The book is bound in brown cloth with stunning gilt decoration to the front board and spine. It's in good condition but there are signs of wear. There is some rubbing and dulling to the gilt on the front and spine, and the book shows a slight forward lean. The corners show light wear and crushing. The back board shows some light marking and the spine is darkened, with rubbing to the spine edges. There is also crushing to the spine ends which has caused minor splitting in the cloth and faint scratches to the front board.
Inside, there is pencilled maths to the verso of the front free endpaper and the opposite page. The pages are clean and bright but there is sporadic foxing and marking. As mentioned above, some of the illustrations have been coloured in and there are a couple of hand drawn illustrations on the back of plates. There are occasional small tears to the page edges, one of which has been repaired with a little tape. There are also cracks to the gutter in places but no loose pages.
Andrew Lang, with the publisher Longmans, Green and Co, selected and edited twenty five collections of stories that were published within fourteen years. They proved popular when they were released and they have survived the test of time to become sought after editions for collectors. The antique editions are known for having beautiful and decorative covers (like this one!). He began with The Blue Fairy Book in 1889 and ending with The Strange Story Book in 1913.
Dimensions approximately 19cm x 13cm x 3.2cm.
The book will arrive hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and string. The bubble wrap I use is 100% biodegradable and the jiffy bags are recyclable.
Where possible, I use 100% recyclable paper tape, but sometimes I have to use clear plastic tape for extra strength.