OSCAR WILDE CHILDRENS COLLECTION ILLUSTRATED BY WALTER CRANE IN THE AESTHETIC STYLE
[x] + 116 pages. Frontis line illustration with tissue guard + 2 other full page illustrations and numerous vignettes. Tissue guard a little browned with light foxing. Very slight & occassional foxing mainly to margins and a little dust ingression spotting to top margin. Endpapers a trifle grubby. 18 x 23 cm. Original rebacked cream paper-covered boards with red titles to front board & vignette illustration in black. Boards slightly grubby, corners and edges very slightly worn. New black morocco leather spine with gilt lettering, rules and star tooling. A collection of five stories first published in May 1888 (and only 1,000 copies printed), this copy in collectable condition is the 2nd Edition, published in January 1889. This normally fragile publication is presented in good overall condition. This is an early Oscar Wilde collection, following the success of his poems and plays but preceding A Picture of Dorian Gray. Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an influential illustrator in the Aesthetic style of the 1880s and a member of William Morris's Socialist League.