Sir Archibald

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1944. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good +/very good. Quarto size, 41 pp., inscribed by Wolo. Mixing delightful illustrations with playful fantasy adventure, "Sir Archibald" is the story of a brave monkey who goes on a quest to retrieve the lion king's crown, travelling through harrowing wilderness and magical parts of the jungle. Wolf Erhardt Anton George Trutzschuler von Falkenstein (1902-1989) wrote five children's books under his pen name "Wolo"; after escaping Nazi Germany, he taught himself how to draw and lived and worked in San Francisco, where, in addition to book illustration, he painted murals and advertisement art.

This volume is the first edition, and contains a special bookplate inscribed by the author. Not in Baumgarten.

___DESCRIPTION: Full paper with a full-colour illustration of the characters with title in black on the front board, black and brown lettering on the spine, plain orange paper on the rear board, endpapers with a map of the land in brown, title page with a full-colour illustration of the title character and scenes from the story, illustrations in monochrome black, brown, or full-colour surrounding the text throughout; quarto size (10.5" by 8"), pagination: [1-3] 4 [5-12] 13 [14-20] 21 [22-26] 27 [28-30] 31-32 [33] 34 [35] 36-37 [38-41]. Prior owner bookplate featuring the characters from the book and inscribed by the author "To / Andrew Grant / very specially / from all of us animals / and Wolo / Nov. 4th 1944", tipped in on the verso of the front free endpaper. In a pictorial paper dust jacket with a full-colour illustration matching the one on the front board, black and brown lettering on the spine, plain orange rear panel, and a description of the book on the front and rear flaps; dust jacket is unclipped with the original price of "$2.00" printed on the front flap.

___CONDITION: Volume is very good plus, with clean boards, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and the only prior owner marking we see is the bookplate mentioned above; very small specks of soiling to the rear board, some rubbing to the head and tail of the spine, the bottom edges of the board, and to the corners, top corners very gently bumped, else fine. The dust jacket is very good, unclipped, clean overall with minor soiling to the rear panel, overall edge wear, chipping to the top and bottom edges, with a loss of one inch to the bottom of the front panel, and a large closed tear to the rear panel (about six inches).

___CITATION: San Francisco Public Library Artists File Index.

___POSTAGE:  International customers, please note that additional postage may apply as the standard does not always cover costs; please inquire for details.

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