Curiouser and Curiouser!

Sometimes in the used book trade you come across some very peculiar collections. We recently acquried a set of Alice in Wonderland books, over a dozen different editions, including some really unusually illustrated versions dating back to the 1920s and 30s. You don't often get to see sets of well known characters rendered in such different ways over time. 

 

This edition was produced for Bell & Hyman Limited, in the UK in 1985, a  set of illustrations by pen and water colour illustrations that by Alice B. Woodward and Sue Shields with a decidedly delicate period touch. UPDATE: SOLD

No doubt the most fantastic is this copy from 1923, The Children's Bookshelf edition by the John C. Winston Company. The series has large type and are "well sewn" to "give long service in the hands of children. Alongside the more familar ink drawings of John Tenniel, there are four unique colour plates, done in the same soft-pastel painted style as the cover by Edwin John Prittie. UPDATE:SOLD

Also in the same set-- a half dozen beautiful editions of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the astronomer poet of Persia, each again with beautiful illustrations, and translated by Edward. But if you are looking to start your own collection, or for your collector in your life, these are just a sample of some the more unusual vintage that now populate our hardcover shelves, just in time for Christmas.