On a Pincushion and Other Fairy Tales
London: Seeley, James, & Halliday, 1877.
Second Edition. Hardcover. This enchanting fairy tale collection was the first published by the English writer Mary De Morgan (1850–1907), a women's suffragist, animal rights activist, and socialist whose politics informed her remarkable fairy tales, known for their feminism, criticism of mass production, and deviations from the traditional "happily ever afters" of the form. Mary De Morgan was the daughter of the mathematician Augustus De Morgan and the spiritualist, suffragist, and tutor to Ada Lovelace Sophia De Morgan; she was also the sister of novelist and ceramicist William De Morgan and sister-in-law to pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn De Morgan. These influences, along with that of artist and radical socialist William Morris and his family, to whom she was a dear friend, were important ones in her work, both social and creative. In fact, the fairy tales in this collection were born of an 1873 Christmas party which Mary De Morgan's spent telling stories to the daughters of William Morris, the children of Edward Burne-Jones and their cousins, including the young Rudyard Kipling.
In this collection of fairy tales, three pins on a pincushion trade stories, water elves cure a farmer's daughter of her vanity by stealing her reflection, magic candles summon fairies good or bad based on your intentions, a sunbeam and moonbeam fall tragically in love, a prosperous town loses everything when they fall to the lure of fast fashion, a sailor searches for a tree that can grow back the bald queen's hair and finds a tiger wife along the way, a princess finds the value of love and hard work in the home of a fisherman after escaping the unbearable politeness of the court by placing an automaton in her stead (which everyone much prefers), and a little boy comes to the aid of a fire princess and water prince in love. This is well loved, yet sound and still handsome second edition of this first collection of fairy tales by a remarkable woman in the history and development of the art form, illustrated throughout by the author's own brother, the famed artist and novelist William De Morgan (1839–1917).
On a Pincushion and Other Fairy Tales collects the following fairy tales: "On a Pincushion," "The Story of Vain Lamorna," "The Seeds of Love," "The Story of the Opal," "Siegfrid and Handa," "The Hair Tree," "A Toy Princess," and "Through the Fire."
7 3/4" X 5 7/8". 228pp, plus 4pp of ads. Presents nicely in protective archival jacket. Bound in sapphire blue cloth over bevelled boards, with cherubs and rabbits on a floral background stamped in gilt and black to upper board, with title in gilt to upper board and spine. Rather heavy wear to binding, with corners bumped and split, head and tail of spine chipped and crushed, some mild soiling to cloth, and scattered rubbing and surface wear to cloth. All edges gilt. Yellow coated endpapers are evidence of previous, likely early 20th century replacement of the original endpapers and reinforcement of the binding, with very top of original endpapers still visible and some ghosts of erased bookseller notes to "new" ones. Half-title clipped to top corner. Some gatherings uneven. Hinges are firm; binding remains sound. Occasional foxing or stray smudge to gently-toned pages throughout, else unmarked. Richly illustrated by William De Morgan in a frontispiece, chapter headings, and numerous vignettes. Good. Item #16465
Price: $400.00