In Fairyland. A Series Of Pictures From The Elf-World. With A Poem By William Allingham. Sixteen Coloured Plates By Richard Doyle. Engraved & Printed by Edmund Evans. London: Longmans, 1875. Second Edition. Pp, 31. Folio. Publisher’s green cloth boards, title ornately lettered in gilt to upper cover, with floral motif in gilt along spine. Light shelf wear to boards, contents in very good condition. A very good copy of this work which due to its size is invariable found in poor condition.

‘In Fairyland,’ for which William Allingham wrote the accompanying poem ‘A Forest in Fairyland’ is a masterpiece of imagination and colour printing. Richard Doyle was one of the most inventive of fairy illustrators, as his sketchbooks and watercolours show. The craze for spiritualism and table turning had its effect on artists, as is evident in Richard’s brother Charles Doyle’s (the father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes). One of the most coveted examples of Victorian colour printing.