German Popular Stories: Translated from the Kinder und Haus Marchen, Collected by M.M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition.

London: Published by C. Baldwyn, 1823. CRUIKSHANK, George. . GRIMM, Wilhelm. ZAEHNSDORF, [binder]. German Popular Stories. Translated from the Kinder und Haus Marchen, Collected by M.M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition. London: Published by C. Baldwyn, 1823.

Full description:

GRIMM, [Jacob and Wilhelm]. CRUIKSHANK, George, [illustrator]. German Popular Stories, Translated from the Kinder und Haus Marchen, Collected by M.M. Grimm, from Oral Tradition. London: Published by C. Baldwyn, 1823; James Robins & Co., London, and Joseph Robins Junr. & Co., Dublin, 1826.

First English edition, with the second issue title-page for Volume I, with an umlaut over the "a" in "Märchen" in the title. "A few copies of the engraved title were printed off before the umlaut was added in 'Märchen'" Otherwise with the following first issue points: With a list of plates on page 218; the title to the tale of "The Travelling Musicians" on p. 9 has no additional words; in the "Notes" at the end of the volume, the note referring to "Preface, p. vii" comes last; and Baldwyn's advertisement at the end begins "On the First of November was published, Price 5s. No. XII. Completing the Sixth Volume of The Retrospective Review."

Two twelvemo volumes (7 3/8 x 4 3/8 inches; 190 x 110 mm). [2], xii, 240, [12, publisher's advertisements]; [2], iv, 256, [1], [1, printer's imprint], [1, ads] [1, blank], [12, publisher's advertisements] pp. Half-titles in each volume. With twenty-two etched plates by George Cruikshank, including two vignette title-pages. The plates in Volume I are printed in brown, and black in Volume II.

Bound by F. Bedford in full navy crushed levant morocco. Covers triple-ruled in gilt. Spines tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, board edges ruled in gilt, turn-ins decoratively tooled in gilt. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Maroon coated endpapers. Leaves D2 and D3 in volumes I and B10 and page iv in Volume II with small closed tears to fore-edge margins, invisibly repaired and not affecting text. Text is very clean and margins are large. The drab printed pictorial front and back wrappers for Volume I along with the spine are bound in to the end of volume I. The printed paper spine label from volume II is bound in to the end of that volume. Overall an about fine set.

"The stories that we know today as Grimm's Fairy Tales were collected from oral tradition by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, philologists and pioneer folklorists. They began to publish the results of their work in 1812, in Germany, under the title Kinder- und Haus-Märchen. The tales first appeared in English in 1823, with the publication of the first volume of German Popular Stories. The translator was Edgar Taylor, and the book's publication was an auspicious event for at least two reasons. It launched an era in which folklore and the fairy tale would stimulate writers to produce an increasingly imaginative literature for children. And German Popular Stories also put before the public the remarkable illustrations—perhaps his best work—of George Cruikshank. The illustrations evoke wonderfully the grotesque, awesome, yet matter-of-fact qualities of witch and goblin, of Frog Prince, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and all the other characters that people the tales. As illustrations to these fairy tales Cruikshank's etchings have never been surpassed" (Morgan Library, Early Children's Books).

Cohn 369. Morgan Library, Early Children's Books, 197. Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 112.

HBS 68858.

$10,000.