[ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN]. Danish Fairy Legends and Tales. London: William Pickering, 1846.
Hardcover. First English edition. Leather-bound. Small octavo (170 x 110mm), pp. [6], 197, (1), (2). Bound in near contemporary half calf over moire cloth covered boards, smooth spine gilt ruled and lettered, speckled page edges, coloured pastedowns and endpapers, half-title present, title-page with Aldine device, decorative head-pieces and capital initials. Printed by Charles Whitingham, Chiswick, their device verso final leaf. One leaf of publisher's advertisements present to rear. The Contents include fourteen chapters: The Wild Swans, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Storks, The Nightingale, Little Ida's Flowers, The Swineherd, The Dustman, The Daisy, The Buck-Wheat, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Real Princess, The Top and the Ball, The Garden of Paradise.
Condition: Good to very good. Binding secure and square, hinges intact, some light rubbing to extremities, initial gathering slightly protruding, some thumbing and brown spots sporadically throughout with the worst effects on title-page, else generally clean, without previous ownership markings. Scarce.
Notes: First edition in English. Andersen's Danish Fairy Legends and Tales (1846) was preceded in England only by two tales, the Improvisatore and Only a Fiddler, published in 1845 in a translation by Mary Howitt. William Pickering's edition was essentially the first to introduce this popular story-teller to the English public.
