This stunning edition of The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley was published by Hodder and Stoughton and features tipped in colour plates by Jessie Willcox Smith. It is the First Uk Edition Thus. The book is bound in blue cloth with beautiful gilt decoration to the front and spine.
It's in good condition but there is wear and bumping to the corners and marking to the boards. There is a small white paint mark to the bottom of the text block. There is heavy sunning and discolouration to the spine, with dulling to the gilt. Crushing to the spine ends has caused splitting in the cloth.
Inside, the endpapers are tanned and heavy bumping to the bottom corner of the text block has caused creasing. The pages are clean and bright with occasional foxing. There is tanning to page 12 and 13 where something has been stored in the book (likely a bookmark or newspaper clipping). There are very occasional finger marks.
The beautiful captioned, tipped in colour plates by Jessie Willcox Smith are what make this book particularly special. She was from the Golden Age of illustrators.
Dimensions approximately 28.4cm x 22.5cm x 5cm.
The book will arrive hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and string.
I use a range of eco friendly, 100% recyclable jiffy bags and boxes, and whenever possible I use brown paper tape. The green bubble wrap is oxo-degradable and the clear bubble wrap is 100% recyclable. I also reuse boxes when I feel it's appropriate (if the boxes are sturdy enough).