THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK, and Other Tales

1848. ["The Little Match Girl"] Translated by Charles Boner. With Four Illustrations drawn by Count Pocci, of Munich. London: Grant and Griffith, successors to J. Harris, 1848. 16 pp undated ads. Original blind-stamped olive-green horizontally-ribbed cloth, all page edges gilt.

First Edition in the English language of this collection of seven fairy tales -- "Little Tuk," "The Shadow," "The Naughty Boy," "The Two Neighbouring Families," "The Darning Needle," "The Old Street-Lamp" and "The Little Match-Girl" -- all appearing in English for the first time except "The Naughty Boy." The translator Charles Boner wrote the dedication to Andersen himself, and also contributed a 15-page introduction "To the Young Readers of These Tales" (he says "Here is another Volume of Andersen's charming stories..." because he also had translated another group of Andersen tales published in 1846). Included are four tinted lithograph plates by Franz Graf von Pocci. This copy is still in the original olive cloth, with page edges gilt and with the original pale-yellow endpapers. It is in very good-plus condition (a small inkstain on the front cover but otherwise just a trace of external wear; a bit of cracking of the very fragile endpapers). The front paste-down bears the small label of the Paris booksellers Boyveau & Chevillet, from probably about fifty years after this book was published.