This hardcover German fairytale book is titled "Es War Einmal" ("Once Upon a Time") and has 14 old fairytales, all in German. Published in 1948 by Loewes Verlag Ferdinand Carl, Stuttgart.
It has beautiful color illustrations - the cover, and 3 full-color illustration plates bound inside the book, all worthy of framing. It also has 16 black line illustrations throughout, some full-page. I originally bought this to frame the art pages but didn't have the heart to break up such a nice book.
Stories include (German names are from the book, translations found online so forgive me if they are inaccurate):
- Die getreue Schwester (The Faithful Sister)
- Kreuzbauer Knud (Kreuzbauer Knud)
- Der Drachentoter (The Dragon Slayer)
- Das Siegesschwert (The Sword of Victory)
- Hahnchen auf Wandershaft (Chicken on the Move)
- Von dem Knecht, der mit einem Gerstenkorn ein Konigreich gewann (About the Servant Who Won a Kingdom with a Grain of Barley)
- Fuchs, Taube und Wasserhuhn (Fox, Pigeon and Coot)
- Hans Faulwams (Lazy Hans?)
- Prinz Alexander (Prince Alexander)
- Der starke Jochen (The Strong Yoke)
- Der dankbare Tote (The Grateful Dead Man)
- Der Reiche Hans (Rich Hans)
- Die sieben Wahrheiten (The Seven Truths)
- Das Butterfab (The Butter Churn)
In researching this book, very few were available and none of them looked this good!
Nitpicking: It is inscribed inside the cover as a Christmas gift for Anna Friedt in 1949 (looks like t was originally in pencil and someone traced it in pen, see the photo), and there is a very light doodle on the back outside cover (photo makes it look darker than it actually is). All pages are bound - non are loose - in tact and in great condition with square corners. There is some slight yellowing of the inner pages, and a small split in the binding (see binding photo), and the cover's outside corners are a little bumped. One illustration looks like it might have been traced in pencil, but it is still in great shape and the page behind it is not affected.
Thanks!