THE TENNIEL ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE "ALICE" BOOKS

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original red cloth with titles in gilt to the spine, in the Sir John Tenniel illustrated dustwrapper. Textured endpapers. Illustrated throughout with 109 black and white plates by Sir John Tenniel, 13 plates and a black and white photograph by Lewis Carroll, and 52 plates by John Leech, Édouard Riou, F. W. Fairholt and many more. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, with light bumping to the head of the spine and extremities, and light spotting to the upper edge. The contents, with a small previous owner's bookplate pasted in to the inner flyleaf, are otherwise clean throughout, and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the better than very good, rubbed, nicked and creased original dustwrapper, which is lightly faded to the spine, and has a touch of spotting on the inside. A lovely example.

The definitive account of Sir John Tenniel's (1820-1914) illustrative career, first as a political cartoonist for Punch magazine and, crucially, as the artist behind the definitive depiction of Lewis Carroll's classic children's characters in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (1865) and 'Through the Looking Glass' (1871).3