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Barlow, Jane; Housman, Laurence (illus.).
The End of Elfintown.
Publisher: MacMillan & Co., London;
Date of Publication: 1894
Stock Code: 15225
First edition. Small octavo, [4], 77, [1]. Tissue-guarded title-page, plus 8 full page illustrated plates within text; 6 elaborate text drawings, all by Housman. Collated and complete. Publisher’s original light brown cloth; titled in gilt to spine; elaborately gilt to boards in design by the illustrator; all edges gilt; white end-papers. Bookseller’s ink stamp to front free paste-down. Small nick to upper joint; corners bumped; light soiling to head of lower board; binding otherwise strong and square. Occasional spots to contents but generally clean. A very good copy. The meticulously designed first edition of Barlow’s Irish fairy poem. The book is illustrated in Laurence Housman’s striking Art Nouveau style, which was strongly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley. The book was Housman’s ‘first important fairy illustration commission’ which was soon praised for its ‘strangeness and beauty’ (Engen 65, 68). His slender, androgynous elves were quite the contrast to the squat little fae that usually accompanied fairy books. £500.00