The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers: A Legend of Stiria

Description: Ruskin's classic tale of the kind-hearted Gluck and his mean older brothers as they go in search of gold is considered to be one of the first stories in the fantasy genre to be penned by an Englishman.
This is the ultra-scarce "Geographia" edition, featuring A.H. Baxter's humorous – and at times slightly sinister – illustrations.

Illustrated with numerous excellent b&w drawings, plus 7 tipped-in colour plates (including a frontis). Unusually, the plates contain printed instructions to the book binder: "To face Page 1"; "To face Page 28"; &c. Pastedowns and endpapers are illustrated in blue monochrome.

Matt khaki boards with tipped-in, embossed '3-D' colour illustration and title to front. Spine and corners bumped and worn. Former is scuffed and missing approx. 6½ cm (2.6″) near the bottom. Minor staining to rear cover. Previous owner – one Miss P. W. W. E. Miller – has very neatly inscribed her name in black ink on the fep. Pages are tanned – to be expected in a 90-year old children's book! – but have managed to resist foxing. Miss Miller has personalised her copy by skilfully colouring in several of the illustrations with paint. Binding is generally sound, with no loose pages. Page 24 has a small part of its lower corner missing.

Undated first edition.

Measures 25.5 cm × 20 cm (10.2″ × 8″). 4to. 48 pp.

Price: £75.00