The True Story of Humpty Dumpty: How He Was Rescued by Three Mortal Children in Make Believe Land

NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1905. First Edition . Hardcover. Good. True first edition of this children's classic (Macaulay also issued an edition in 1905, but the copyright is held by Dodd & Mead), which was illustrated and decorated by Ethel Franklin Betts. This copy is good to very good in brick colored cloth with a large pastedown illustration on the front board of three children looking at Humpty sitting on a wall (this illustration is not in the book). This pasteon illustration has a little edgewear and rubbing, with gilt lettering that is still fairly bright. There is a color frontispiece and five color illustrations (the illustration facing pg. 146 is detached but present). There is fraying and a little loss of cloth at the lower right corner of the front board, and some wear and small nicks at the spine ends. The front hinge is tender, and the rear hinge is split, but still fairly tight. The spine of the book is darkened in places, and some of the internal pages are lightly soiled. There is also a small area of dampstaining at bottom page corners near the front of the book. The endpapers are also illustrated by Ms. Betts, showing the three children riding an owl, with bats, the moon, and a flying frog in the background. No names or other writing in the book; a clean copy internally.