STORIES AND FAIRY TALES FIRST AND SECOND SERIES

London and Orpington: George Allen, 1893. Two volumes bound in olive green cloth with pictorial cover illustrations in forest green. Octavo, 398 & 426 pages respectively. Each volume contains 100 illustrations in black and white by Arthur J. Gaskin, including a full page frontispiece. Arthur Gaskin, less well-known than his colleague Walter Crane, produced some of the most enchanting illustrations of the period. The cover illustrations, two young girls reading beneath a pair of stylized pomegranate trees, form a border around the title panel, decidely Pre-Raphaelite in nature and tone. Aside from some light soil and a bit of a bump to one corner, both volumes are in exceptionally nice condition.