The May-Blossom; or The Princess and Her People. From Original Illustrations by H[enry]H[etherington] Emmerson. With Verses by Marion M. Wingrave. [Engraved and Printed by Dalziel Brothers].
New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, [1881]. First American edition. The London edition was published in the same year. Chromolithographic frontispiece, title-page, and half-title. Sixty-four chromolithographic illustrations, including twenty-one full page illustrations, plus chromolithographic and text illustrations. Binding extremities slightly rubbed, light wear to crown and tail of spine. Minor soiling to boards. The occasional small stain. Very light offsetting from plates. Repairs to gutter margins of endpapers. Large, closed tear to gutter margin of front flyleaf. Contemporary ink inscription on additional title-page. A very good copy of a fragile work. Illustrated boards with blue cloth spine. Floral patterned endpapers. Quarto. 64 pp. Item #16425
Little is known about Marion M. Wingrave, including her dates. She authored several works, including Quacks: The Story of the Ugly Duckling After Hans Christian Andersen (1884). The May-Blossom depicts Princess Victoria (1868-1935), daughter of Edward VII (1841-1910), from her birth up to her childhood and its various aspects, including her pastimes (i.e. feeding pets, a walk through the woods) and the different sorts of people she meets.
Henry Hetherington Emmerson (1831-1895) was an English painter and illustrator. He was a founding member and the first president of the Bewick Club, a Newcastle Association of painters and illustrators. His paintings of children were numerous and well-known; fifty-eight of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy during his lifetime.
Price: $125.00