[ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN]. Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Harry Clarke. London: George G. Harrap & Company, n.d. [1916].
FIRST TRADE EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; quarto (27 x 19 x 4.5 cm); pp. 319, [1]. English text, with illustrations throughout by Harry Clarke. Beautifully bound in full blue crushed morocco gilt by Bayntun-Riviere; all page edges gilt; marbled endpapers; half-title; decorative title-page; 16 tipped-in full-page colour plates mounted on heavy paper, each with a captioned tissue guard; 24 black and white drawings; decorative tailpieces. The original grey cloth covers bound in at the rear. Printed at the Complete Press, West Norwood, England. Condition: FINE. A wonderful, tight and clean copy; without previous ownership markings. Exquisite.
Notes: First edition, U.K. issue, of Harry Clarke's first illustrated book, a stunning Beardsley-esque interpretation of the Danish fairy tales, a work of 'superb technical accomplishment" and "rare poetic feeling" (contemporary review in Studio, quoted by Burns, p. 41) that established him among the foremost illustrators of the early twentieth century. Burns Appendix A, no. 2.
