Long, Long Ago: A Picture Book of Nursery Tales

London: Blackie & Son Limited, n.d.. Hardcover. Very Good -. Hardcover. Undated but from the early 20th century. Somewhat uncommon, with one listing on Via Libri of a poor copy, and copies in just two libraries on WorldCat. With several classic stories, including Beauty and the Beast, Jack and the Bean-Stalk, and Little Red Riding Hood. Some of the illustrations are signed by the well-known English illustrator Helen Stratton (1867-1961). By 1891 Helen was in Kensington, London to attend art school, where she became a follower of Art Nouveau in the style of the Glasgow School of Art. For many years she lived and worked as a book illustrator and painter in Kensington with her widowed mother and siblings. From 1896 Stratton became well known for bold and imaginative pen and ink illustrations to classic tales, her first success being Norman Gale's Songs for Little People, of which The Bookseller wrote in 1896 "Miss Stratton has headed, tailed and bordered the verses with a series of exquisitely pictured fancies" In 1898 she drew 167 illustrations for Walter Douglas Campbell's Beyond the Border, then a year later reached the peak of her illustration career with upwards of four hundred drawings for a finely crafted art nouveau quarto edition of The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, published by George Newnes. In the same year she collaborated with William Heath Robinson and three other illustrators. [Wikipedia] Bound in glossy illustrated covers, with an old lady (witch?) on the front cover and advertisements for Blackie and Son's illustrated storybooks. With a tan cloth spine. Covers are soiled and lightly bumped. Hinges are cracked but text block is holding. Text pages are generally clean, with occasional spots and slight browning to margins. About very good minus. Measures 8 x 10.25 inches. Unpaginated [28 unnumbered pages] CHILD/012925.