The Peek-A-Boo Gipsies

London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1923. Hardcover. Very good/good. Preston, Chloe. Square quarto size, 43 pp., with original jacket. Mary Clarissa "May" Byron (1861-1936) was a prolific author of children's books. Baumgarten lists twenty-seven titles, including the "Peek-a-Boo" series. In this book, the Peek-A-Boos decide to play at being in a "gipsy" caravan, and what happens when they meet some real gipsies...

Chloe Preston (1887-1969) seems a bit more elusive; from various online sources we gleen that she was born in Britain "in a gentrified English country environment". Her charming illustrations of the Chunkies (anthropomorphic wooden dolls) and the Peek-a-Boos have "clear simple outlines and bright colours, [and] her humorous images portray simple excursions and activities" (n.b., quotes from the web site of the Antique Print Club).

___DESCRIPTION: Blue cloth shelfback with blue paper over boards, the front board illustrated, white lettering on the front outlined in black, the spine plain, yellow endpapers, six full-colour illustrations bound in throughout (including the frontis) with many in-text black-and-white illustrations; square quarto size (10 1/4" by 8 3/4"), pagination: [1-6] 7-43. The dust jacket is of very stiff paper, the recto grey with an illustration on the front panel that mirrors the front board, recto plain.

___CONDITION: Volume a solid very good, the boards clean with bright colours, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright (other than a very few light, stray marks), and entirely free of prior owner markings; some light edgewear to the paper boards, head and tail of the spine lightly bumped, the corners lightly bumped with minor rubbing, a few guttars just beginning to crack (text block still strong), we note one leaf (pp. 21-22) with a small (one-half inch) closed tear at the top margin, and one page (12) with what appears to be an ink stain (in the margin only). The dust jacket good only, all component parts present and attached, overall edgewear including a few areas of loss (mostly at the head of the spine), light soiling, and evidence on the verso of previous restoration.

___CITATION: Baumgarten, Artist, p. 160.

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