PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS

First trade edition, first printing. Original russet cloth with gilt titles to the spine and upper board, along with a gilt illustration. With beautiful colour illustration plates by Arthur Rackham. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with some rubbing to the extremities and a mark to the lower board and spine. The contents, with a short closed tear and a small contemporary inscription to the half title and some light foxing to the prelims and infrequently throughout, along with the odd finger mark to the margins, are otherwise clean and bright throughout. All 50 plates, one at the front as the frontispiece and the other 49 grouped together at the back, are present with their captioned tissue guards and in fine condition without corner creases or marks.

Peter Pan first appeared in the chapters 13 to 18 of Barrie's 1902 novel "The Little White Bird". Barrie extracted the story and following the success of his Rip Van Winkle illustrations, through The Leicester Galleries, asked Arthur Rackham to provide the illustrations. The resulting first edition of Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens became not only a highlight of golden age book illustration, but for many, their first introduction to "the boy who wouldn't grow up".