Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales. With Illustrations by W. Heath Robinson. London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1927]. Pp, 319.  A very good copy in maroon cloth cover with gilt decorative design in original pictorial dust jacket, with some staining to page edges.

A beautiful gift edition of Anderson’s classic tales, illustrated with sixteen tipped-in colour plates and numerous line drawings through the text.

William Heath Robinson was fortunate to have started his career during the golden age of book illustration. The invention of photographic techniques had freed artists from the necessity of having their work hand engraved onto plates. It had also produced a dramatic reduction in publishing costs and publishers took full advantage. Robinson’s reputation today rests largely on his humorous drawings of unworkable gadgets, which he only started to produce in 1917.