WINNIE THE POOH'S HOTEL

First and only edition. Signed by the author. Hand printed and bound by the author in red cloth with black titles to the upper board. 64mo. 8.5 x 7.5cm. Hand coloured frontispiece and two further illustrations by the author. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with some bumping and minor fraying to the spine tips and corners, the cloth a little spotted. The contents are clean throughout and without previous owners' marks. The lower inner rear hinge is cracked but holding firm. Rare.

Produced in a hand-numbered limited edition of just 25 copies, this example is numbered 13 and signed by Peter McGregor Ross on the colophon. A curious and really quite lovely early Winnie The Pooh pastiche; an original story featuring Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit and Christopher Robin. The book was produced within a couple of years of the first edition of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's 'The House at Pooh Corner' (1928), almost certainly without the knowledge or permission of Milne and his publisher Methuen. One would assume it was a semi-commercial enterprise given the presence of a printed price of 'Half a Crown Nett'. Only one copy appears in auction records (this copy), sold by Sotheby Parke Bernet, 27 July 1983. Notably absent from the legendary Pat McInally collection, and the Victoria and Albert Museum 'Winnie The Pooh: Exploring A Classic' exhibition (2017-2018).