STRUWWELPETER. Or Merry Stories and Funny Pictures.

First edition with these illustrations, first printing. Original illustrated paper-covered boards with a green cloth spine. Illustrated throughout in colour by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. A very good copy, the binding firm, the corners a little worn, the lower board a little scuffed and dusty, the cloth spine with a few marks (from the binding staples). The contents, neatly strengthened to the inner hinges, are otherwise clean and bright throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Scarce.

An early Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone title. A newly illustrated, English edition of the 1845 German children's book of cautionary tales, 'Der Struwwelpeter'. Janet and Anne were twin sisters born in 1928 to the successful painter and stage designer Doris Zinkeisen and Captain Edward Grahame Johnstone. They became hugely prolific and skilled illustrators whose process was unusual in that they worked collaboratively on every piece, passing a painting backwards and forwards until they were both happy with the outcome. They illustrated many collections of fairy tales, nursery rhymes, prayer books and mythology collections, as well as retellings by Enid Blyton and Dodie Smith's classic '101 Dalmations'. The sisters never married and remained exceptionally dedicated to their work. After Janet died at only 50 years old in 1979 Anne was left to work alone for the first time, and although her workload was doubled and she had to get used to drawing animals, which were Janet's speciality, she still managed to complete all of their commissions. She continued to work up until a few days before her death in 1998.