Catalogue of a Highly Important Collection of Children's Books. Parts I -VI : A-Z and Addenda. [ Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., auction catalogues, sale dates: 1-2 July, 1974 to 13-14 October, 1977]. [ 6 vols, complete set ]

Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, auction catalogues for the series of six sales held from 1st-2nd July, 1974 to 13th-14th October, 1977. 6 vols, printed wrappers, small 4to,. 103 + 117 + 116 + 96 + 106 +127 pp, 84 plates, ills. 2951 lots. A complete set of catalogues for this major series of sales of children's books, The collection was that of Edgar oppenheimer, the foundation of which had been the books brought together by Percy muir for the National Book League 1946 exhibition "Children'sBooks of Yesterday". Among the highlights noted were the following: numerous works by Newbery, a wide variety of Battledores including a New Invented Hornbook [c. 1770-75] and the Aunt's Gift, 1795; and extensive groups of Chapbooks by Houlston, Kendrew, Marsden, Rusher, Walker and others; extensive groups of books by Thomas Day, Mary Elliott, and Lady Eleanor Fenn; various editions of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; a comprehensive set of Fuller's cut-out costume books; an extensive collection of editions of Little Goody Two-Shoes, from 1766 to c. 1840; a comprehensive group of books illustrated by Kate Greenaway; collections of Harlequinades and Juvenile Drama; an extensive collection of moving picture books; Beatrix Potter's Tale of Peter Rabbit, [1901] and The Tailor of Gloucester, 1902; Raspe's Gulliver Revived, 1787, and other editions of Baron Munchausen; An Epitome of Mr. John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, 1676; Stevenson's Treasure Island, 1883, and A Child's Garden of Verses, 1885; The Sugar Plumb, 1771; a group of Panoramas and Peepshows; Tea-Table Dialogues, T. Carnan, 1771, the first edition, hitherto known only from contemporary advertisements; Mary Wollstonecraft's Original Stories from Real Life, with plates by William Blake, 1791; Wyss's The Family Robinson Crusoe, 1814; Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen, [c. 1822] ; The Child's Library, 10 vol. in case, 1838-41 ; Tom Brown's School Days, 1857, with an A.L.S. from the author. Some wrappers a little faded, initials to some front wrappers and some notes and marks to front wrapper and text of Part I, otherwise a Good set. List of prices realized laid in for Parts I to IV and estimates laid in for Parts V and VI.