The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley (Ward Lock, c1930s) | illustrated by Harry G. Theaker

The Water-Babies

by Charles Kingsley, illustrated by Harry G. Theaker
Ward, Lock & Co. Limited, [No Date] circa 1930s

A volume in the 48 colour plate (incl. endpapers) ‘Prince Charming’ series from Ward, Lock & Co., published from the late 1910s and through the 1920s/1930s. Titles include ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Hans Andersen’s Fairy Stories’, ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘The Water-Babies’, and ‘Tales from Shakespeare’.

Harry George Theaker (1873-1954) illustrated several titles in this series, including ‘Stories of King Arthur’ (1925), ‘Robin Hood and his Merry Men’ (1927), and ‘The Adventures of Don Quixote’ (1929). This edition of ‘The Water-Babies’ was originally published in 1922, this copy being a later undated reprint.

Hardback. Publisher’s beige cloth with onlay plate to front board; titles and decoration in black to front and spine. pp [i]-x, [11]-340, [4] publisher’s list, including colour plates and illustrated endpapers. Size: 8.5 x 6.25 inches approx. (215mm x 158mm).

Cloth lightly worn and rubbed to extremities. Occasional light foxing but generally pages clean throughout; spotting/foxing to edges of page-block with some encroachment onto page margins.

Overall, light wear but otherwise a particularly nice, clean copy – quite lovely.

– – – – –

References

British Library

Alan Horne , The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1994)