Peacock Pie
New York: Henry Holt, 1925. Robinson, W. Heath. Hardcover. 8vo, full green cloth with pictorial gilt, with color frontis and line drawings for each poem by W. Heath Robinson. A lovely bright copy in the scarce dj, lightly edgeworn with 1/2" of paper loss at the spine top and a 1" split in the front flap hinge. Unclipped, darkened front jacket panel, tape reinforcement to interior of jacket at spine ends and worn folds. A near fine copy in a good plus jacket.
This illustrated edition was first published in in England inn 1916 and in the U.S. in 1917 and is not uncommon—it was popular enough to be reprinted in 1920 and again with this edition. However, the treat here (besides being a delightfully illustrated book) is the jacket, which is scarce for any of the editions. It was fragile, heavy stock and clearly did not hold up. The center illustration repeats the gilt design on the cloth cover, but additionally it's surrounded by 8 vignettes of characters undoubtedly taken from inside. The back cover and front flaps list other books by De La Mare; the rear flap lists and describes The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks, illustrated by Willy Pogany. Fine. Item #29618
Price: $200.00