Peter Pan & Wendy
J. M. Barrie
Published by Hodder and Stoughton Limited for Boots Pure Drug Co. Ltd, [No Date] circa 1931
Superbly illustrated throughout in colour by Gwynedd M. Hudson (poster artist & illustrator, fl. 1910-1935)†with page decorations and many full page illustrations. Originally published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1931* in an orange cloth binding, this copy the Boots/Hodder printing in a blue cloth binding.
Boots partnered with a number of publishers in the 1920s/30s and offered for sale several quality illustrated gift books for the Christmas market. Titles included Alice in Wonderland (Gwynedd M. Hudson), Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales (W. Heath Robinson), Stories from the Arabian Nights (Edmund Dulac), Black Beauty (Cecil Aldin) and The Water Babies (Jessie Willcox Smith). This edition of Peter Pan & Wendy in terms of design and production is arguably the best of them.
Hardback. Publisher’s blue cloth with gilt title and decoration to spine; title in gilt and illustration in gilt and black to front board. pp [1-12], 13-271, [272], including colour illustrations. Size: 10 x 8 inches approx. (253mm x 200mm).
Cloth a little sunned to spine, especially patches to head and tail, otherwise generally clean and bright; light wear to extremities; spine ends a little turned in; boards lightly knocked to corners. Offsetting and foxing to endpapers and first/last pages; some corner creasing and a gift inscription dated Christmas 1935 in ink to front free endpaper; some bubbling to paste-downs; occasional light foxing, some marks and dustiness/fingerprints, but generally pages clean throughout; age toning to edges of page-block; page gatherings a little shaken in places but generally holding well.
Lacking the dustwrapper but would appear to have had it, or a protective covering, until quite recently. The cloth binding is very susceptible to daylight/sun damage and often found with the spine very worn and becoming detached. Not an uncommon book however this copy exceptionally well preserved in comparison to many others.
Overall, showing light wear but otherwise a particularly nice, clean copy – lovely indeed.
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References
*Jisc Library Hub Discover
†Alan Horne, The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1994)
†Jonathan Ridell and Peter Denton, By Underground to the Zoo (Studio Vista, 1995)
