Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem by Henrik Ibsen

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co, 1936. Publisher's salesperson's sample copy (preceding the first edition). Large octavo (9 13/16 x 7 7/16 inches; 249 x 189 mm.). Complete. Original printed color pictorial dust jacket (with "Harrap" on the spine) with a neatly repaired tear on front near spine. Original gilt decorated brown cloth. Original pictorial endpapers. Title-page printed in green and black. Two full-page color plates with descriptive tissue guards and two half-page black and white illustrations. A Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket.

A great rarity. These were obviously produced in minimal quantity for the publisher's salespeople to solicit advance orders from bookshops. The 'list' of illustrations leaf states "[There will be Twelve Plates in Colour]" The vignettes on the half-title and title-page in the published edition are printed in a much lighter and brighter green. The list of books Illustrated by Arthur Rackham on the verso of the half-title is very different from the published edition. The two color plates are: "Peer and the Woman in Green" [in the published edition this plate faces p. 66 and is titled "Peer follows the Woman in Green"] and "Anitra's Dance" [in the published edition this plate faces page 148]. Although this sample has the Lippincott imprint, the verso of the title-page says "Printed in Great Britain."

Not mentioned by Riall.