Baum & Parrish, 1897

Mother Goose signed prints
Baum & Parrish, 1897
PARRISH, Maxfield (1870-1966) and BAUM, L. Frank (1856-1919). Proofs of the Illustrations by Maxfield Parrish for Mother Goose in Prose. Chicago: Way and Williams, 1897.

The complete set of original signed prints, in the publisher's portfolio; one of only 27 copies printed. Mother Goose in Prose was Frank L. Baum's first children's book, preceding The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by three years, as well as Maxfield Parrish's first foray into book illustration. The prints include: "Pictures by" vignette, frontispiece, title-page illustration, Little Boy Blue, The Black Sheep, Old King Cole, The Wond’rous Wise Man, Jack Horner, The Man in the Moon, Little Bo-Peep, Tommy Tucker, Tom the Piper’s Son, Humpty Dumpty, and Three Wise Men of Gotham.

14 prints, 227 x 280mm each, all signed by Parrish in pencil in lower corners (slight toning; occasional very minor creasing at outer margins). Matted and framed; with publisher's original portfolio (covers intact but flaps detached). Provenance: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 12-14 June 1980, lot 355.

[With:] BAUM, L. Frank. Mother Goose in Prose. Chicago: Way & Williams, [1897]. First edition. Quarto. Original pictorial cloth (spine toned). Portfolio and volume housed together in a velvet-lined blue and white gift box.