Giant & Dwarf Crowquill Fairy Tales c.1860-70’s McLoughlin scarce picture book

Giant and Dwarf- Crowquill's Fairy Tales.

Published NY, 1865-80 by McLoughlin Bros.

20 pp. [counting covers], color litho cover, 12 1/2 pg. b&w woodcut images by Holcomb-Davis, sc.

A scarce McLoughlin imprint of this classic but not often printed story.

Nice example overall with excellent eye appeal. Spine charmingly repaired long ago with decorative cloth and thread stitching, some small corner chipping to covers. lightly rubbed, assorted moderate small age spotting or soiling, signs of handling, etc. Still, plates are all clean, small blank marginal soiling, short edge splits, signs of handling, nothing severe. Scarce title in any condition.

Nicer than you might expect for fragile juvenile paper booklets from the middle of the 19th century, so over 150 years old. The format, audience and approach is a precursor to modern comic books of the 1930's and then Golden Age on.

The survival rate of 19th century color paper juvenile books such as this is very low, a minuscule percentage (almost certainly under 10% in most cases, probably 1-5% of half of all those originally produced. Some issues scattered all over the place in publishing history may all but no longer exist as copies.

So even if it were “a lot” made then, it would still be very modest by most modern standards of production.

Meaning the actual sales run of hand made books like this would have to be measured in low thousands, thus meaning survival rates probably below 100 -200 per title, with variations of course depending upon factors such as size, title, orig. price, condition, etc.

Therefore, all surviving examples of 19th century color juvenile books should be considered inherently scarce and worthy of acquisition on some level, their actual comparative rarity being mostly invisible to the uninformed observer.

Book measures c. 9 7/8“ H x 6 7/8“W.

B15211