Folio Society Hardcover

Hansel & Gretel and Other Stories

by the Brothers Grimm

AS NEW UNREAD condition in DECORATIVE SOLANDER BOX

Illustrated by Kay Nielsen

2016 Limited Edition of 980 hand-numbered copies - this is copy #900 

A Folio Society facsimile of Kay Nielsen’s rarest work illustrating 22 of the Brothers Grimm’s most beloved tales.

Production Details:

Facsimile volume:

312 text pages set in Caslon type

12 × 9¾ inches

Text printed on Caxton Wove paper

12 color plates reproduced from a copy of the first edition, printed on Natural Evolution Ivory paper and tipped on to text pages along one edge, protected with Japanese tissue overlays

10 black-and-white images printed on Caxton Wove paper

Decorative initials in black and red

Endpapers printed in gold and orange inks with a design by Kay Neilsen

Gilded top edges

Bound in buckram, blocked in gold foil and screen printed in turquoise on front and spine with a design redrawn from a copy of the first edition

Commentary volume:

16 pages set in Caslon type

8¾ × 5⅔ inches

Printed on Abbey Wove paper

Thread sewn with a cover of Natural Evolution Ivory paper

Cover printed in gold and orange inks to match the endpapers

Printed title label on front

Presentation box:

12¾ × 10 inches

Bound in cloth specially made to match the turquoise on the binding

Blocked in gold on front and spine with images redrawn from a copy of the first edition

Contents:

Hansel and Gretel

The Six Swans

Little Brother and Little Sister

The Fisherman and His Wife

The Drummer

Rosebud

The Spindle, the Shuttle and the Needle

Snowdrop

Jorinde and Joringel

The Goose Girl

Clever Alice

Cherry, or The Frog Bridge

The Three Little Men in the Wood

The Valiant Little Tailor

Roland

The Juniper Tree

Rapunzel

The Three Magic Gifts

Catskin

The Golden Goose

Rumpelstiltskin

The Two Brothers

Kay Nielsen:

The eclectic yet instantly recognizable and distinctively powerful work of Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886–1957) stems from his emergence at the end of the great period of book illustration. Fully conversant with the tone and techniques of Rackham and Dulac, Nielsen also drew on the more disturbingly idiosyncratic visions of the fin de siècle illustrator Aubrey Beardsley and elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and influences from further afield, from Japanese woodcuts and Persian and Moghul art. The result is a heady, beguiling blend of styles, at once exalted and tender, consciously stylized yet consistently engaging.

The watercolors and drawings Nielsen produced in 1925 for Hansel and Gretel and Other Stories are every bit as accomplished as his celebrated illustrations for the collection of Norse stories, East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914). The Grimm volume, less familiar through its relative scarcity, displays the full range of Nielsen’s technique – both in the rich palette of the twelve color illustrations, featuring his characteristically lean and long-limbed heroes (see the King in ‘The Six Swans’ and the hunter in ‘The Two Brothers’), and in the arrestingly detailed black-and-white images, including the raffish, Beardsleyesque knight of ‘The Spindle, the Shuttle and the Needle’, the ferociously malevolent witch of ‘Rapunzel’ and the desperate figure of ‘Clever Alice’, running haplessly through the world, which also provides the book’s cover.

Nielsen’s remarkable interpretations of fairy stories earned him a job at the Walt Disney studios, where his work can be seen in the highly innovative and ambitious animation Fantasia (1940). Sadly, his relationship with the studios soured and, in a grimly ironic twist, he suffered the cruel destiny of some of the characters he had depicted with such tenderness, scraping a living and eventually dying in poverty. Yet his powerful legacy as one of the great book illustrators remains undiminished – as is amply demonstrated by the exquisite images in this Folio Society facsimile of his rarest work. Kay Nielsen is one of art’s most distinctive and affecting storytellers.

I recently acquired a large and interesting collection of Folio Society titles in AS NEW UNREAD condition from a collector who purchased most of them new and sealed, and displayed them in a smoke free, climate controlled home.

I will be listing these as time permits so please check back often for new listings.

Please let me know if you have questions. 

PLEASE NOTE: To be eligible for returns, all books must be undamaged and be repacked as sent.